A Certain Unscientific Paradigm
by soulcage
Summary: This is a story about Takayama Akito, a Level 0 high school delinquent who despises Academy City, and his struggle to protect his friends from its Darkness. Centered around original character protagonists.
1. Friends

Disclaimer: To Aru Majutsu no Index is a deep and wonderful peace by Kamachi Kazuma.

This is a fanfiction of To Aru Majutsu no Index set after the second season of the anime. However most if not all the cast will probably be original and made by me. These days living as a neet is slowly coming to an end for me so I finally decided to write this story that has been hanging around in the corners of my mind since last year (Max procrastination).

Well anyway, I have already read the novels up to New Testament so I'm not planning to stick the story during the time before WWIII.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1 - \Friends_<strong>

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><p>In the dark and empty sidewalk of District 10, a lone lamp post illuminated two boys under its light.<p>

It was already past the usual curfew time in Academy City.

"Say.. Takayama..." Turning to face the boy beside him, a young man spoke with an accent as he was crouching down by the guard rail of the sidewalk. "Your friends with that Tatemiya chick aren't ya? Why don't ya introduce me sometime?"

His face was almost like a grown-up with a chin full of bristles. He was wearing a messy high school uniform which only consisted of a dress shirt that was crumpled and had several brown stains.

He took a sip from his beer can that was already nearly empty. His already flushed face became even redder.

If a member of Judgment were to see this, the young man would definitely be in big trouble, however only the two of them occupied the street.

"Hahaha.. Do you really think Ms. Hotshot Level 4 will go for a bastard like you Mikoshiba?" After coming out of the convenience store, a thin young boy hid his pack of gums from his two friends. He let out an annoying smirk to the drunk boy.

He had sharp orange cat-like eyes and short black hair. His school uniform was a lot neater although he was missing his coat and a chain hang from his belt to his pocket.

Normally, a private establishment in Academy City will disallow minors from buying alcohol and cigarettes however the territory they were currently in was a special case.

"We were just classmates during middle school, senpai." Takayama Akito spoke with a bored tone as he read the magazine in his hands. He was shorter than the other two boys and his dyed, unkempt blonde hair made him stick out slightly. He also looked a lot younger than the two.

"Ahhh..? yer no fun... Aren't ya supposed to be my cute little kouhai?"

Mikoshiba persisted but Akito turned down every single one of his proposals.

"Hm.. It should be about time now." the cat-eyed high schooler casually looked at his watch. "Shall we go?"

"Sure! I'm pumped up tonight~!" Mikoshiba stood up unsteadily. His height now reached past 6 feet. He had a fairly large body frame. From far away, he would look like an athlete at his peak.

"You guys going again tonight senpai?"

"Yeah..." The cat-eyed boy named Shin paused a for a bit before continuing. 'Wanna come too?' A mischievous smirk came out of his face.

"Err no.. There's a Scan tomorrow so I have to wake up early." Akito did not know where the senpais always went during this time of the night but he had a feeling that he shouldn't get involved.

"Just leave the kid alone, Shin~ You might make him pee his pants."

"Ahh~ I know. I was just kidding." the boy continued to smirk.

Akito watched his seniors leave before turning to the opposite direction, slightly curious of what they are up to.

"Oi! watch where yer going!"

The shout echoed slightly behind Akito in the dark urban street.

"Wahh! S-sorry!"

Akito looked back towards the direction of the voices and saw the seniors he parted with under a malfunctioning light post. The backs of the two faced towards him.

He saw a boy wearing black framed glasses and wearing the same uniform as him, bowing down in front of Mikoshiba. Feeling pity towards the boy, he slowly approached his two seniors to stop them.

"As much as I'd like to have fun with you, kid, we have business to attend to." Shin thought for a bit before letting out a mischievous smile, as if he just found a new toy to play with. "But if you really want to then let's play a quick game."

"Let me break him in first.' Furious, Mikoshiba cracked his knuckles.

'I'll take care of him.'

Akito suddenly appeared behind them and grasped the giant senpai's shoulder. "You guys have somewhere to go don't you?" He spoke apathetically.

It has already been a while since Akito hanged out with his seniors but he still couldn't understand why they are so rowdy, picking fights with everyone they bump into.

"Hm..? Is he someone you know?" Mikoshiba turned towards the blonde hair boy

"Not really..." Without changing his expression, the boy shurgged.

Shin glanced at the his kouhai's face, slightly curious of his unusual behavior, before letting out an amused grin.

"Well don't get too carried away now."

"Teach that punk a thing or two would ya?" Still a bit annoyed, Mikoshiba walked forward out of the blinking light of the malfunctioning lamp post before shoving the boy wearing glasses out of his way.

Shin followed and soon the end of the street where they disappeared into the dark shadows of District 10.

The other two boys stared at the at the high school seniors as they walked out of the vicinity.

"Oi, you okay? You shouldn't go around areas where there are troublemakers especially at this time of the night."

"Ha ha ha.. Are you not a delinquent yourself, Takayama-san?" The boy smiled sheepishly. He removed his glasses and quickly wiped the exhaustion off his forehead.

"Huh? Do I know you?" Slightly confused, Akito turned to face the boy with raised brows.

"Honestly, you ought to know the names of your classmates, Takayama-san!" The boy adjusted his glasses and stood up straight. His expression grew serious.

Akito took a step back, surprised by the boy's sudden shout. "S-sorry. My bad..."

"I'm glad you understand." The boy nodded approvingly. "I'm the class representative, Atsu~chi~ Tomoya~!"

A special introductory skit suddenly began.

Tomoya held out a peace sign with an exaggerated pose like some kind of famous idol or comedian.

Akito could've sworn there were some kind of sparkles in the background but shrugged it off thinking it was a hallucination. _Ahh... It's one of those characters..._

If this was one of those visual novel games then Atsuchi Tomoya would definitely be the main protagonist's goofy best friend, is what Akito thought.

"Anyway, I came here to deliver this." Tomoya took a notebook from his bag and gave it to Akito. "It was sticking out of your desk so I figured you forgot it."

"Uhh.. thanks." Akito took the notebook with a confused look. "But how did you find me? I don't think anyone in the class knew this place"

"You don't knooooooowww~?"

Atsuchi Tomoya began again.

The tension was building up with each passing second while Akito waited for the possibly stupid revelation to come out of the other boy's mouth

"It's because I'm a superhero~!" Tomoya smiled and gave a sudden wink at Akito.

The blonde haired boy frowned the most unpleasant frown he had this entire week.

_Definitely one of those characters..._

"You're at least Level 2, aren't you?" Akito deposited the notebook into his student bag. "Some kind of search oriented esper?"

_How annoying..._

"Yep! As expected of the person Tatemiya-san acknowledges. Though you look that way, you really know a thing or two." Tomoya's eyes glittered with excitement.

Akito didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or not.

"... or you could be some kind of creepy stalker."

Akito stepped backward slightly hiding a pitying face.

"Errr... uhh.. no that's not the case. I just used my Clairvoyance as I searched around the area to find you." Sweat bullets dropped like rain on Tomoya's face.

"Doesn't that actually increase your potential as a stalker?"

"No no no no no! I'm a proper human being! I'm the class representative even! I would never misuse my powers like learning Usui-sensei's whereabouts!"

"You said something suspicious just now..."

Akito then made a mental note to keep an eye out for this weirdo.

The two high school boys continued on with their act at the dark empty street of District 10.

"...Anyway don't come here again or you'll get yourself beaten up." Akito's voice grew harsh. "If not I'll be the one to do the beating..." The blonde haired delinquent quietly muttered those last few words. _This district is only for us Level 0's. There's no place for you espers here._

The area they were in was one of several remote areas of District 10 which were rumored to be a gathering of gangsters and SkillOuts.

Suddenly, Akito noticed Tomoya's expression as it changed to a serious one after hearing his warning.

"..."

"Oi. Why're you so quiet suddenly?"

"You should stop hanging out with those kinds of people, Takayama-san." Tomoya's bright brown eyes turned into an icy glare. The weirdo best friend act was now finally over and a more serious scene was about to unfold.

"Hah?!" Akito sounded displeased at that remark.

"We are worried about you..." The class representative looked downcast.

_Who is 'we'? What's this idiot spouting about now? _The delinquent's eyes grew sharp. He was starting to feel even more annoyed by the busybody. "What I do is none of your business."

Akito originally wanted to scare the boy away but he got carried away with teasing him.

"Of course it is! It's my duty as you're-"

"...Class representative? Ha! Don't make me laugh." Akito sneered at the boy's comment. "So if you weren't the representative, the teacher wouldn't have to ask you to talk some sense into a troublesome guy like me?" Akito turned around, not wanting to talk any further.

"As you're friend... and I came here on my own, not because someone ordered me to." Tomoya pleaded to the delinquent.

"I don't remember making friends with a stupid stalker. Get lost." Akito began to turn around to face the other direction, away from the boy.

"Please... Takayama-san. No good will come out of being around SkillOuts. Have you seen the news lately?"

"So you're saying being an Esper always makes you right?!" Akito spoke without turning around. Annoyed, he couldn't stand watching the esper's face any longer.

"No... it's not like that..."

Tomoya ran out of things to say. It was not that he was weak-willed but because he could not find a suitable argument that could pull Akito to his side. The delinquent was already too far gone. Tomoya already knew that the blonde haired boy has skipped so many classes and has this hatred for every one of his classmates that are espers, but he approached the haired boy anyway without a proper plan aside from returning the notebook and acting friendly.

He slowly looked down at his feet as his fists trembled.

"Don't come here again. Espers like you annoy the shit out of me." The blonde haired delinquent spat out those words before walking away from the boy and the area.

Not wanting to press the matter any further, Akito left the streets of District 10 and headed for District 7 where his dorm was located.

_How pathetic.._

The street lights started to glow brighter with each passing corner. He reached the monorail which was still functioning at this time because Academy City issued an extended operation period for people who have late working hours. The power consumption factor is of course not a problem for the system runs on electricity generated by dozens of wind turbines.

_I'm nothing more than a failure..._

Akito's eyes were empty as he walked the streets before reaching his dark dorm room.

There was no particular object that stood out in the room. Actually, it lacked any aesthetics or decorations at all. If a stranger would come in, he would definitely mistake the room to have no resident if it not for the food inside the refrigerator.

Akito left his bag in a corner and took off his student uniform before falling on top of his own bed wearing a grey hoodie.

It has already been some months since Akito had moved into Academy City. Prior to moving, he had lived with his family and attended an ordinary middle school. His father was not usually at home but when he was, the whole house would get very lively. His two little brothers were annoying and always asked him to help out with their home work but they really looked up to him.

Akito stopped his trail of thought there and stared blankly at the ceiling before closing his eyes.

_Academy City is so full of bullshit... It's all their fault I'm stuck here as a Level 0..._

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><p>Meanwhile in a certain abandoned building in District 10. 11:28 pm.<p>

'Yo~! How's the plans coming along~?' Shin waved at a grown man playing a handheld game console while sitting on a crate in the farthest corner of the big industrial room. The latter scowled at the sight of his two associates.

'The stuff have been delayed. They won't be arriving for at least two days.' the person continued playing his video game which was, in closer inspection, to be a rare retro fighting game that received great reception in the past.

'Aww~ thats no fun.' Shin let out a disappointed sigh but did not seem all that serious.

Mikoshiba staggered toward a different corner of the room to sleep, not caring anymore after hearing the change in the situation.

'Man.. those idiots working on the transport will get grilled by the higher ups when they arrive. I'm so glad I wasn't assigned to transport,' Shin took a gum from his pocket and chewed on it. He crouched near the end of a conveyor belt and toyed with some of the incomplete contraptions sprawled around. 'Was security as tight as always, Jun-san?'

The man was completely indulged in the epic battle unfolding in front him. 'Nope. A lot of Anti-Skill doing security checks this time.' His thumbs almost moving past the limits the eye can see. 'And you wouldn't be assigned to transport anyway since your abilities are more suitable here in assembly.'

The building was quiet for a moment apart from the retro video game being played until Shin spoke an easy-going voice.

'Well no choice but to lay low until our part of this show.'

Shin played with a small black object in his hand which used to be a bunch separate machinery from the floor a minute ago but now connected together to have a shape and form of some kind of small handgun similar to a low caliber S&W revolver.

'It's too bad that Komaba got taken out. He would have been a great addition to REBEL's fighting power.' Shin got bored with the replica gun and threw it aside to make a new toy. 'And maybe _that kid _as well.'

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><p><strong>Ahhh... I'm still not used to writing so I really appreciate the feedback...<strong>

**Author's notes:**

S&W is an American firearms manufacturer that has been in existence for quite a while now.

This story will most likely have more than OC protagonist so it will shift from time to time.


	2. Rivals

**Chapter 2 - \Rivals_ff7856h**

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><p>A certain high school in District 7 was currently undergoing its special periodical Power Development Scan. It was slightly different from the System Scan, which was always being held throughout Academy City. Only Level 0's and Level 1's were allowed to participate while higher level espers had their scan a lot later in the month. Those not participating were still required to come to school and do individual reviews on their lessons however they could relax anytime as long as they were done.<p>

One reason for separating the scanning periods for espers was because the school was made up of a large percentage of Level 0's and 1's. The workload would be too much if the school also scanned other levels at the same time so the administration decided to focus more on developing espers who are lagging behind in their curriculum by giving them more frequent scans.

However, the process was not as orderly as the administration had hoped. The students were assigned different testing venues with different schedules.

It was far from order.

It was a battlefield.

The long hallways were occupied by a surging wave of students going in multiple directions.

1st year? 2nd year? 3rd year? It did not matter. Honorifics were dead within these halls.

A 2nd year boy curled his arms like a rugby player and pressed on relentlessly, not caring whether he was up against a senpai from a club or a beautiful well-endowed class representative.

A couple of girls grouped together and formed a triangular formation that plowed through a corridor in a certain part of the school's main building.

Some freshmen took a stealthier approach by going through the windows of classrooms in the first floor and followed the long path through the grounds.

Students of the same class secured their classroom for use as a rest stop in between their skirmishes.

Each student applied their own tactic after much experience from past scans.

While all that was going on, Takayama Akito was sitting down on one of the benches some distance away from the main building for first years.

It was hectic outside as well but Akito did not mind.

He only had two items in his checklist for today's scan, one of which, the General Psychometry Assessment, had already been accomplished earlier this morning.

The other one was the Personal Reality Progress Analysis which is supposed to be held in Room 103 of the main building near the entrance.

Akito quietly stared at the entrance.

The mass of moving flesh inside the building can be seen from where he was sitting.

However that was not where his attention was...

There stood a tall, peculiar high school girl crossing her arms in the midst of the moving crowd of students. Her long black flowing hair was tied up in a ponytail. She had fiery amber-colored eyes that made her stand out extremely well.

It would have looked like a scene out of a romance novel where the boy falls in love with a mysterious beauty on the first day of school had it not been for the lack of sakura blossoms dancing in the air. And the fact that Akito's expression was not something like fascination or infatuation, but something similar to a situation where he eagerly selects his favorite can of coffee from a certain vending machine and got milk tea for some unknown reason instead.

_Tch… A troublesome person has appeared... _The boy groaned.

Like a watch dog- No- Like a guardian of hell looking on all the poor sinners lining up to be punished, she stood unflinching with her back to the entrance, monitoring for any accidents or trouble that may occur.

After hearing that another scan was going to be held on this day, she instantly volunteered to help out the discipline committee. Though not being part of the student council herself, being the only Level 4 in the entire school gave her enough recognition to give out orders to people.

So it seemed an obstacle was in the way of Akito's path.

Going through a different entrance is not an option because of the congestion of people will only delay him further.

The mission parameters require Akito to pass through the entrance which is heavily guarded by a demon, and make his way through the numerous students clogging the building's hallway. The latter is no problem at all compared to the former is what the boy thought.

Suddenly a female voice rang out which startled every student in the area.

"Oi! You two! Button up your shirt and take off those god damn piercings now!"

Tatemiya Haruka shed off the visage of a rare beauty and went full demon mode.

The Level 4's hair rose up as if being blown upwards by a strong demonic aura.

This was Akito's chance. There was no point in blending in with the crowd outside while approaching the entrance when his hair sticks out too much was what the boy thought. He just has to move quickly!

Thus began Takayama Akito's own battle.

Like a master ninja, he sneaked through the pathway to the entrance stealthily, jumping from shadow to shadow made by trees that spread throughout the grounds.

After reaching a distance of 10 meters from the entrance, Akito made for one last sprint while Haruka still had her back towards him.

Desperation covered his entire face, as if he was a prisoner who was trying to sneak past a warden.

The opponent was a Level 4, the pride of the entire school and also rumored to have withstood an attack from a certain Level 5 from Tokiwadai Middle School.

An esper battle could really push ones limits was what he thought (though all he did was to simply sneak past her inside a noisy school building.)

He did not bother to take a quick glance at the commotion. He just headed toward the goal in front of him.

His mind was now celebrating at his victory after finally being only a few feet away from the designation.

"Baka..."

"… Eh?"

As he passed through Haruka, he could have sworn he heard a quiet voice but shrugged it off in the end.

At that time,

"Haruka-san, wasn't that Akito-san just now?" An innocent-looking young girl appeared out of the hectic crowd, catching her breath.

"HAHH?!" The discipline committee stand-in made a sound unbefitting of a girl like her.

"Ehh? You didn't see him?" The girl named Aki pointed at the direction where the boy went. She was not afraid of Tatemiya Haruka's demon mode.

"Of course I saw him," Haruka spoke while she continued her observation of the hallway. "It's just that I don't have time to deal with idiots like him right now."

"Hmm~ are you sure?" Another girl appeared out of the crowd, one with a natural ojou-sama aura. Her long brown hair curled at the ends, and her bust size was enough to turn heads. Actually, the crowd slowed down a bit as they approached her, catching short glimpses of her beauty before continuing with their struggle.

"What do you mean, Saki-san?" Aki, the slightly plain girl of the three, inquired to the other girl.

"Tatemiya-san was obviously at the entrance so she could bump into Takayama Aki-" Saki stated in an as a matter of fact tone but was cut short.

"No! It's not like that!" Haruka denied frantically, her long hair swayed as she shook her head.

Saki and Aki just stared at Haruka with faces that say: _Ahh.. she's really bad at lying._

"Anyway, what are you guys doing here? Aren't you going to study in the library?" Haruka changed the subject of conversation.

In a soft and gentle voice, "We heard that you were assisting the discipline committee so we thought that you needed some help." Aki spoke out.

Unlike the two long-haired girls, Aki did not stand out much. Her black shoulder-length hair covered a bit of her face and her stature was about below average compared to her classmates.

"Not me. I was just bored." Saki said as she raised her hand to disagree.

"Tatemiya-san! Thank you for your hard work~!' A student from the discipline committee appeared suddenly among the crowd and approached Haruka to relieve her from of her duty as a hall monitor.

The three girls headed for the roof which had a resting area after buying lunch from the vending machine in the cafeteria.

The ruckus inside the school slowly dissipated after an hour.

"Are you free today, Haruka-san? Want to go to Seventh Mist?" Aki opened the bento box she selected from the vending machine.

"Sorry. I have Judgment work to do later, maybe some other time?" Haruka made a sheepish smile before taking a bite on her hotdog.

"A busybody as always…" Saki took a sip from her milk tea.

Haruka did not mind the comment as she herself was aware of her own faults.

"Come to think of it, there has been a lot of news regarding Skill-Outs recently. Something about illegal weaponry hidden in warehouses scattered across districts.'

"Yeah, we have been really busy with surveying the area for anything suspicious. Though, we haven't encountered anything yet…"

"Hmph! I would not be surprised if that Takayama Akito was in the middle of it all." Saki spoke in an ojou-sama like tone.

"No… that's impossible. He would never do something like that." Haruka rejected the idea casually.

"What makes you think so?"

"Because we've have been rivals since our second year of middle school." Haruka made a reassuring smile.

"That vulgar delinquent was your rival? Are you joking?!" Saki crushed the carton of milk tea in her hands.

"Umm... Sorry Haruka-san but I agree with Saki-san. He does seem quite intimidating." Aki added.

After noticing what a mess she made, Saki quickly threw away the carton at the trash bin and quickly wiped her hands.

Akito did not have a good reputation around school. He always had a hostile vibe that made people avoid him. There were rumors that he had beaten up some students from another school.

"That's just him being out of his wits with some problem or something. Don't worry about it." Haruka spoke nonchalantly.

Aki and Saki couldn't understand what Haruka just said.

"B-but how could he be on par with you Tatemiya-san?! Based on our test scores, he's nothing more than an idiot!" Saki asserted her argument.

"Oh he wasn't just on par with me. He was on a completely different dimension. Didn't you know? He was a prodigy that skipped a grade or two." Haruka said casually.

Aki and Saki made disgruntled expressions. They found it hard to believe that someone who picks fights with other people would be someone very intelligent.

"But that's how Academy City is you know…"

Academy City only paid attention to a student's ability as an esper. No matter how talented a student was if he was only a Level 0, then he was no different from a flunked experiment. That is what Takayama Akito is to Academy City.

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><p>Inside Room 103,<p>

"Hmmm… your numbers have improved." A man wearing a white lab coat took a sip from his coffee before continuing. "But you're still far from showing a significant spike to your psyche which shows that you are in the reaches of displaying a psychic ability. Though maybe applying special parameters would yield more conclusive results…"

The person analyzing the data from several documents had a face that seemed like he would be popular with young girls. He had narrow framed glasses and jet black hair that parted sideways. He was a man on his later 20's.

The delinquent slumped on a stool on the other side of the researcher's desk, not fully interested in comprehending all the technical terms that were being said as his mind wandered about the room from time to time.

There were several shelves which had books of different variety. Each had titles that seemed to be related to research in AIM, Quantum Physics and Brain Neurons.

_It's just gonna be the same thing no matter what I do._ Akito thought while looking around the small office.

"But don't look so down," the man made a wide grin. "your steady progress is apparent in the data records so it may not be long before you could fly, shoot laser beams out of your eyes or manipulate gusts of wind to blow away women's skirts to see that they were coincidentally wearing thongs or whatever you youngsters are into these days."

"Please don't joke around sensei..." Akito began to suspect that he was some kind of special magnet that attracted weird people.

"You're no fun." The man sighed at his student's lack of humor. "And after all this time that I have been taking care of you…"

_Where have I heard that before… _The boy frowned. "Isn't this your job in the first place?" Akito sounding displeased.

"Speaking of which, have you ever caught a glimpse of Usui-sensei wearing a thong?"

"How far off am I from reaching Level 1, sensei?" Akito ignored the man's inquiry.

"Well… perhaps you just need a certain stimuli to change the state of your brainwaves to one that can invoke a Personal Reality, which will come naturally so you don't have to worry." Finally looking serious, the man spoke before reaching a piece of paper and a pen from his desk. "Oh and I'm prescribing you different drugs this time, I'll just record the data during the next scan."

It was common knowledge in Academy City that researchers applied certain drugs on their test subjects, whenever they deem it relevant in their study. Of course, these drugs had no adverse effects whatsoever on the subject's physical or mental condition but the subject's psychic conditions.

Akito took the slip of paper from the researcher's hands.

'Yes~ Kihara-sensei~' The boy unenthusiastically replied while he waved the paper around.

* * *

><p>"So, idiot, how was it?"<p>

Haruka leaned on the wall outside of Room 103, waiting for a certain boy to come out.

The hallway now contained fewer students than before.

"Same as usual, idiot…"

The young boy closed the door to the room he was previously in.

The two exchanged verbal insults casually. In Japan, it was a custom for younger people to refer to their elders with utmost respect but Akito who was the youngest of the two, ignored such annoying things whenever he was with the girl whom was in the same grade as him.

"You don't have to get your panties in a bunch every time I see the results of my power level." Akito sighed.

Haruka turned red with anger after hearing Akito's remark. "Oi you brat, I just wanted to see if you were finally taking things seriously. But you're still just slacking off as usual."

"Yes~ I'm no match for the great Haruka-sama." Akito shrugged. "But seriously, there are a lot more people out there who deserve more of your attention than me, like that Railgun or whatever she was called."

The boy did not know of the identity of the famous Railgun from Tokiwadai Middle School but he has heard many interesting rumors about her like the one where she fought a giant Powered Suit on a certain freeway.

"It was a mistake for me to be here..." The boy silently muttered.

He remembered all his shortcomings after arriving at Academy City. He was so full of ambition at first, doing all he could in the Power Curriculum Program to become an esper. But now he was tired. Tired of climbing such a steep wall where he cannot see the top. All the efforts he made didn't get him anywhere, making all the time he spent studying felt like such a waste.

A certain tone played on the school's PA system, announcing the end of the school's Power Scan.

The two ignored the tone as they stood in the middle of the school's halls.

Was there even a reason for him to continue living in Academy City? He contemplated as he tried to walk away from the girl.

"So are you saying that you're just going to give up?" The girl said.

"Haven't I already?" The boy replied with his back towards her. "I just don't have the knack for this like you do."

"I know we haven't hung out for a while but that doesn't mean you can just abandon our race!"

"I'm a Level 0 and you're a powerful Level 4. There was no race to begin with."

Haruka clenched her fist, ready to beat the boy up but then an idea came into her mind. An evil smile formed on her face.

"Heh~ Look who's suddenly sulking in the corner. What was it? 'Watch me, I'm gonna be a kickass Level 5 and I'm gonna be the supreme ruler of this realm!' Something like that?" Haruka snickered.

"H-hey! I didn't say anything like that!" Slightly flushed, Akito turned around before waving his hands around frantically. "And who the hell says 'supreme ruler of this realm'?!"

All his worries were abruptly forgotten for a moment.

After seeing the boy's amusing response, the girl smiled and said, "Looks like you still have some fire left in you. We're still first years, Takayama. You don't have to rush 'cause I'll always be cheering you on!"

"….." The boy was astounded by the girl's relentlessness. It seemed that no matter what he did to push her away, she will only come back stronger.

"And when you finally reach the top, I'll be here to smack you down~!" Haruka raised her fist and gave a cheerful grin.

"Hmph… Don't you have Judgment duties or something?"

Akito turned around once more and waved good bye to Haruka. A tiny smile can be seen on his face.

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><p><strong>I've been trying to stop myself from adding battle scenes regarding espers because I wanted to follow the story line inside my head but damn finally... next chapter will have an Esper fight.<strong>

**No appearances yet from canon characters but I promise they will appear.**

**Author's Notes:**

Akito skipped two grades however he was 3 years younger than Haruka making him around 13 years old.


	3. Flare Cloak

**welp I tried my best.**

**This chapter is about Tatemiya Haruka, Takayama Akito's friend and self-proclaimed rival.**

**Here's hoping for more feedback.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3 - \FLAre_CloAk_<strong>

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><p>Tatemiya Haruka walked along the streets of District 7. It was 4:50 pm.<p>

She was a member of Judgment's 164th branch and a skilled Level 4 Esper hailed as the pride and joy of her entire school.

She had extremely good grades and was athletic.

Her 'cool beauty' attracted a lot of male and female students whom idolized her.

She often scolded boys who try to break the rules but for some reason they seemed to enjoy it.

A few rich boys from other schools came up to her once with bouquets but she flat out rejected them in the end saying that she did not have the time to mess around.

'Tatemiya-san is very reliable! One time, she protected me from a big malfunctioning military robot all by herself' A young girl commented with great praise.

'I'm the founder of The Great Tatemiya Haruka Support and Admiration Fan Club so ask me every single detail you want to know about her!' A boy wearing a white head band excitedly declared.

'Tatemiya-san is an innocent and gentle maiden. Actually, I'm on my way to propose to her right now.' A young and handsome gentleman pointed at a foreign sports car. 'I bought this hoping that it would be up to her tastes.'

'Hmph . You do not know who Tatemiya Haruka-sama is? I'm not surprised because only I know of her true greatness!' A middle-aged man wearing business clothes reached out to the heavens.

'Never have I met such a formidable rival in my entire life. We are good friends but some day I will definitely surpass her. As the great Level 3 Cyclone Hand, it is only my destiny.' A brown-haired bishoujo said explicitly.

'Hahh? That idiot? Well she has a bad temper so watch out. We've known each other since middle school so I know a lot about her clumsiness, though… she is kind and always thinking about the people around her I guess.' A young blonde-haired boy who appears to be a bit shorter than your average high school student said.

'Haruka-san is….'

'Tatemiya Haruka-san could be the…'

'In all honesty, Tatemiya Haruka can…'

Many knew of Tatemiya Haruka's amazing display of bravery and elegance but only few know that…

'Eh? Didn't I pass through here before?' the long pony-tailed girl looked at her cellphone's map. 'What's with this cross-shaped thing and all these blue lines? I swear Academy City makes things too complicated.'

Tatemiya Haruka who was on duty at this time wandered around District 7, clueless of where her destination was.

* * *

><p>About an hour earlier inside Judgment's 164th branch….<p>

'The warehouse that has been raided by Anti-Skill contained different types of weaponry including, hand guns, assault rifles, SMG's and grenade launchers.' A girl named Mifune Hisako pointed at the image being projected on a large screen.

The Judgment's 164th branch had a similar office structure as any of the other branches in Academy City. The members included Mifune Hisako, Hajime Kaiji, Mitogawa Hideki, Tatemiya Haruka and Yamagishi Kairi.

'Also, the Skill-Outs said to be responsible for hoarding these illegal weapons were said to belong to an organization called REBEL, a faction that is being backed up by some unknown source. Anti-Skill speculates that it is a foreign company.' Hisako added.

'Because of this incident, Judgment has been asked to survey several areas for suspicious activity specifically, Skill-Outs amassing in great numbers. Are we all clear?' A boy wearing a flat hat continued the briefing alongside Hisako in front of the three other members.

The three nodded in response.

'So the assignments will be… Mitogawa to Area A, Yamagishi to Area B, Hajime to Area C, and Mifune and Tatemiya will stay here as back up. Anyone who sees anything suspicious must immediately contact Mifune. Do not act recklessly, any questions?' The boy named Hajime gave out orders one after another.

Hajime Kaiji has been chief of Judgment's 164th branch for over a year now. He was a stern leader who often trusts in his member's strengths.

Haruka who was the last to join (and is still undergoing training during her off days from school) held great respect in Hajime Kaiji's leardership.

Everyone agreed on their leader's decision including Tatemiya Haruka however...

'I wish I could have gone out on the field instead.' Haruka sighed as she sat on the couch while skimming through reports from other Judgment branches.

'It couldn't be helped, Haruka.' Hisako who was engrossed in operating a computer replied. 'These past few weeks have been hectic so who knows what might happen.'

'I agree but… '

'No buts.' Hisako replied immediately.

Haruka pouted for a bit before returning to her work.

'I've been meaning to ask you something, Haruka.'

'Hm?'

'Aren't you cold in that?' Hisako pointed at what Haruka was wearing.

Haruka, apart from her Judgment armband and necktie, did not wear a blazer or even a vest outside of her dress shirt. She even folded the sleeves to make them shorter. It was October in Academy City and the temperature was so low that anyone would be called ridiculous if they wore such light clothing.

'What do you mean, Hisako-san?' Haruka tilted her head.

'Uhh… nothing…' Hisako made a wry smile.

Several minutes later…

'I-I can't take it anymore!' Haruka mentally cursed inside her head.

There was a gigantic stack of paper in front her. Mostly records about Skill-Out activity in the past few days.

She knew that what she was doing is important to the investigation but the amount of work seemed endless.

'Err… Hisako-san?' Haruka made a friendly smile while hiding her pain from the other girl.

'Yes?'

'Can I take a quick break outside?' Haruka mentally pleaded for the girl to say yes.

'Well if it's just a quick one, then sure. But don't go too far or someone might send for an immediate backup request while you were gone.' Hisako continued to type something on the computer.

Haruka hurriedly went outside.

'Ahh… finally…' Haruka stretched her thin arms before looking around the street.

'Where was that convenience store again?'

Haruka moved forward not knowing that serious trouble is awaiting her.

* * *

><p>'Hm?' Haruka stopped near an intersection.<p>

An old lady, who had a hunched back and an old-style cane, was fretting over when she should cross the wide, four-lane road.

'Ahh obaa-san, are you trying to cross the road? Let me help you.' Haruka grabbed the old lady's hand and helped her cross the road.

'Take care now, obaa-san.'

The pony-tailed esper made a refreshing smile which was known for grabbing the hearts of every boy in her school.

'Hmm… you would be a perfect bride for my Keniichiro.' The old lady stated while thanking her savior.

'Eh? I don't understand but I have somewhere I must-'

Suddenly a man wearing a black suit and briefcase bumped into Haruka before dashing away.

'S-sorry!'

'Geez… what was that abou-' Haruka noticed something fell off the man's pocket. It was a long and expensive-looking black wallet.

'Hey~! Mister! You dropped your wallet!' Haruka picked up the wallet and chased after the man with all her demonic might.

It did not take long for her to reach him.

'Huh? Oh! Thank you! Here, as a reward.' The man pulled out a large bill from the wallet.

'EH? No I can't possibly-' Haruka was gonna reject the man's money when…

'WAHH!'

Suddenly, a young boy cried out in the park beside them.

'What's wrong little boy?'

The boy cried for a bit before pointing at the red balloon stuck in the tree.

'No problem.'

Haruka jumped but was not able to reach the string of the balloon and suddenly, a tiny explosion occurred under her feet which then propelled her upwards, finally grabbing the balloon.

'Thanks onee-san!' The boy who now had his balloon back went towards the playground.

Haruka let out a sigh of relief before noticing something again.

'Ara ara? Misaka wonders where that boy wandered off to says Misaka as Misaka makes a pose that mothers do when their child is nowhere to be found.' A young girl who seems to be around 10 years old looked around the park.

'KAWAII~!' Sparkles can be seen in Haruka's eyes as she headed towards the cute young girl.

'Ow! Ow! yells Misaka as Misaka tries to get away from the person who suddenly came up to her before pinching her cheek.'

The little girl had short brown hair with an unusual ahoge sticking out.

'Misaka? Is that your name, ahoge-chan? Are you lost?' Haruka still brimming with excitement.

'Misaka is identified as a Misaka but Misaka much prefers to be called Last Order. And Misaka is not lost but is actually looking for that boy who promised to meet up somewhere around here says Misaka as Misaka remembers his vague promise.' Says the young girl.

'Eh~? Then should I help you look for him?' Haruka reached a hand out to the young girl named Last Order before the latter hesitatingly grabbed hold of it.

'Misaka hesitates to accept this teenage girl's help for the boy might, in the small chance, experience love at first sight and be stolen from Misaka says Misaka as Misaka expresses her doubt especially when the girl in question is wearing such light clothes.'

'What is this boy like?' Haruka made an inquiry to Last Order.

'Well he is handsome, and strong, and always looks after Misaka says Misaka as she makes an approving nod.'

'No I mean is what does he look like? Does he have any identifying features?'

'Hmm… he has white hair and uses a crutch says Misaka as Misaka thinks carefully.'

'White hair? That's certainly an identifying feature.' Haruka thinks that it is impossible to miss such a weird looking person as she looks around.

'He might be this way! Exclaims Misaka as she points towards a certain direction.' Last Order ran towards a certain direction while dragging Haruka along. Her ahoge pointed towards the same direction as well.

'W-w-wait! Where are we going?'

'Just trust Misaka says Misaka as she reassures her passenger~!'

The two ran around the entire area, passing through places like coffee shops, department stores and narrow alleys. The pony-tailed esper girl was beginning to feel dizzy because of all the sudden turns she had to make as she followed the girl named Last Order.

* * *

><p>After a while, the two girls stopped at the same park where they began their sudden adventure.<p>

Haruka sat down at a nearby bench to catch her breath.

'He wasn't there either sighs Misaka as Misaka feels down.' Last Order's ahoge curiously bends down.

'Maybe I should take you to my branch's office.' Says Haruka while still out of breath.

Suddenly, a person came up to them. He had white hair, red eyes like that of a beast, and a crutch extended from his hand.

'Is that him?' Haruka muttered while not taking her eyes off the white-haired boy, looking bewildered.

_He reminds me of a certain someone._

The boy took a few more steps before stopping in front of Last Order.

From out of nowhere, the boy landed a hand-chop on the little girl's head.

'Oi! You brat! I've been waiting here for 10 whole minutes.' The boy said in an angry tone.

Haruka stood up to protest but the boy ignored her and continued to scold Last Order.

'Misaka was here a while ago but you were nowhere to be found so Misaka decided to look for you with that person from Judgment, says Misaka as Misaka points towards the girl with the pony tail.' Last Order pointed toward Haruka but Accelerator ignored it.

The boy who seemed to be on the verge of popping a blood vessel paused for a bit before letting out a sigh instead.

'Is that so? Then don't you have something to say to that person, you damn brat?'

Last Order tilted her head before realizing what the boy meant and then she turned towards Haruka.

'Misaka wishes to express her gratitude to you for staying with her throughout her journey, says Misaka as Misaka makes a quick but dramatic bow to the person.' Last Order cheerily did as she was told.

'Ahh no it was nothing.' Haruka started to get confused by the minute.

'Let's go.' Accelerator headed towards the park's exit.

'Uhh ahmm… do you need some help?' Haruka showed concerned for the boy with the crutch and approached him from the side.

However Accelerator ignored her, still walking forward.

'See you pony-tailed Judgment person! Says Misaka as Misaka waves goodbye.' Last Order twirled around a bit before running towards Accelerator.

Haruka just stood there in the park, watching the two as they left.

'Hahhh… what was that seriously? And what is up with that boy?' Haruka scratched her head in frustration.

She had only met one other person who could make her feel this way. If it had been _that boy_, then she would have flat out punched him square in the face but she was well aware that she couldn't do such a thing to a disabled person.

She remained in that position for a bit before letting out an exasperated sigh.

'Well whatever. It's not my problem anymore. Time to get going.' Haruka took a step but then stopped immediately.

'Eh? Where was I again?'

[ ]

* * *

><p>[ ]<p>

'Let's see… I was near an intersection before I arrived at the… or was it a department store?' Haruka operated a light red cellphone in her hands.

She moved to Academy City several months ago, took the Judgment Preliminary Entry Test shortly afterwards which allowed her to work as an honorary member while undergoing training, and became the top of her class.

So why does she not know the way to her own branch office?

'Huh? Where was north again?'

Haruka continued to move aimlessly around believing that she was still in District 7 when suddenly,

'Oi! Be careful or you will break the stuff!'

The Judgment member heard a loud voice within a dark alley just ahead.

'It's fine~! They're pretty durable! I've tested them before.'

Haruka hid behind a trash dump close by before seeing two men being surrounded by a pile of boxes and a delivery truck. She immediately noticed peculiar things about them.

Both of them did not wear work clothes or uniforms.

The truck which had its back open did not contain any indication that it was affiliated with a certain company or organization such as a label or sign on the sides of the truck. It also looked a bit rundown, clearly not made by Academy City.

Among the pile of boxes was one which was not closed and was showing its contents for the world to see.

'What are those?'

Haruka peered over and saw little black and white solid object like toys.

'So it's District 10 this time?' said one the men who was wearing a black jersey and had piercings around his ears.

'Yeah, they boys there must be pissed that we took so long.' this time, a man with long hair and leather jacket.

Both of them picked up each box and placed them inside the truck.

'It couldn't be helped. We have to deposit these things so we can avoid Anti-Skill checkpoints.'

'Could they be…' The girl muttered.

'Who the hell came up with this idea anyway? It's a real hassle using such a roundabout way.'

The two finished their packing and prepared to move out.

The truck released smog out of its muffler before moving out of the alley, confirming that it is indeed not a standard Academy City vehicle.

Haruka was now absolutely certain they are…

'Skill-Outs…' The pony-tailed Judgment member kicked the ground, shifted her center of gravity and landed on the adjacent wall.

A trail of molten steps can be seen as she ran on the completely vertical brick wall before making an explosive jumping which propelled her forward surpassing the speed of the truck. This time she gently fell down above the delivery truck as if she was wearing a parachute.

'I don't know how long this ride will be but I should stay hidden for the meantime.' Haruka said that as she drew a circle on the truck's roof which then made an opening she can enter.

To a normal stranger, this feat was something out of a movie's special effects but what Tatemiya Haruka did was very simple. She generated and manipulated heat around her.

* * *

><p>Back at Judgment's 164th branch office,<p>

Hisako, the only one left behind was still typing away on her computer.

She was absolutely calm however…

'You've got some nerve ditching your work you damn trainee!' The bespectacled Judgment girl crushed the keyboard in her hands.

* * *

><p>'Huh? Was the roof always like this?' A man noticed a circular pattern above the interior of his delivery truck which used to be a gaping hole that one pony-tailed esper made.<p>

The delivery truck was now parked inside an underground parking lot.

'Oi stop slacking off!' Another man stood in front of an entrance to some kind of building some distance from the truck.

Haruka now hid behind the truck's front which was facing away from the building. She got out via the same method she used in the first place

'I should contact Hisako-san quickly. The Skill-Outs seems to be planning something big.' Haruka took a peek at the Skill-Outs that were outside the building.

Haruka reached to her pocket for her cellphone but was stopped by a hand which suddenly grabbed her arm.

'What's a pretty girl like you doing here?' The man grabbing the girl's arm had a nasty smile but immediately noticed the armband around Haruka's right. 'Tsk. Judgement eh?'

'Shit!' Haruka then used her esper power without a second thought.

'ARGHH!' the man bellowed as his hand touched an extremely hot surface that could be compared to a sizzling frying pan. The man then withdrew his hand then the girl wordlessly unleashed a side-kick on the man's stomach to knock him away.

A group of thugs noticed the commotion and began to alert the remaining Skill-Outs inside the building.

'SHE'S AN ESPER!' The man whose hand got burnt shouts a warning to his comrades.

Soon, Haruka found herself surrounded by countless armed thugs.

Several members open fired at the young high school girl, their weaponry consisted of lightweight SMG's and handguns, however the girl to stood motionless.

Was she scared shitless? Was what some of the members thought.

Then the one-way firefight lasted for a several seconds. The barrage of gunshots echoed throughout the parking lot. However a peculiar phenomenon happened, the shower of bullets exploded like firecrackers as they approached a certain distance from Haruka.

A cloud of smoke and gunpowder accumulated together between the mass number of Skill-Outs and the young girl.

The first thing they saw was a set of amber-colored eyes. The young esper was unharmed. Not a single bullet touched her body.

The Skill-Outs stood there witnessing the unnatural event occur with their eyes. They were unable to ascertain what this girl's power was.

Suddenly, the entire group of thugs was swept by an unpleasant sensation like being cooked inside an oven.

The temperature rose inside the parking lot.

The Level 4 esper was not done yet.

Guns dropped from the Skill-Outs' hand one after another. Their surface became too hot to hold with bare hands.

Taking this opportunity, Haruka aimed her palm towards the middle of the group's formation before releasing several shots of condensed thermal radiation in the form of spheres.

The shots exploded as they hit the ground, knocking away groups of men.

This was the ability of Tatemiya Haruka. Her code name given to her by researchers, apart from The Great Tatemiya Haruka-sama~ , was Flare Cloak.

By manipulating the molecules around her with Telekinesis, Haruka is able to release an intense wave of heat in a specific radius. She is also able to emit heat in certain areas of her body.

Haruka looked around slightly exhausted. There was no one left standing.

'That takes care of that, now then to contact Hisako-san.' The young girl dialed the number of her coworker but got interrupted suddenly. A bullet hit her phone, smashing it to smithereens.

'Why don't you keep me company for a while?' A figure appeared out of the shadows, beyond the entrance to the building.

The young high school girl took a fighting stance.

The man approached Haruka casually. He had a high caliber handgun in his right hand and wore a high school uniform.

Haruka activated her power and roasted the man like turkey- that didn't happen.

She held her fighting stance, not showing the deep confusion in her mind.

Why aren't my powers working? His gun should've exploded by now. Is what Tatemiya Haruka thought.

'Did you know? Capacity Down works best in enclosed space since sound bounces from the walls. You won't be able to hear it though since it is a special model.' The boy said with a smirk on his face.

Sweat drops form on the young girl's face.

'Don't worry~ I'll stop Mikoshiba from taking a peek at your panties tonight.' After saying those words to Haruka whom got confused even more, the boy closed their distance instantly.

Haruka moved to deliver a strike with her left elbow but was countered by the boy's right.

The boy shifted his position and slammed his gun's handle against Haruka's temple, knocking her out.

The Level 4's consciousness faded into darkness.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

Bishoujo means beautiful girl in Japanese

Ahoge is a lock of hair that sticks out of a person's head

The Areas stated by Hajime are all within District 7

Haruka picked up fighting techniques during her training in Judgment.

Panties are panties.


	4. REBEL part 1

**Chapter 4 – REBEL/-pt.1**

* * *

><p><em>Academy City sure has lots of skyscrapers. Even though it's a rotten city, it sure can be beautiful at this time of the day.<em>

Akito was deep in thought as he looked at all the tall buildings beneath him. The sun painted the sky a deep orange as it began to set. A blimp passed by showing the current weather forecasts.

From this height, the people from below would look like ants moving about in random directions.

_I haven't made much progress unlike Haruka… I also caused a lot of trouble for other people.… What's this city doing anyway?! How could they just give out random powers to damn children?!_

_Still, Academy City is the pioneer of Science. Many of today's technological advances were because of its forward thinking, like that space elevator. Perhaps there is more to this city than poisonous experiments… Maybe I should change myself … If only I could…_

_It's just that…._

'I HATE THESE GOD DAMN ESPEEEEEE~RRRRSSSSS!' the young blonde-haired boy shouted at the wide open sky. Some people heard his cry from the streets below but shrugged it off as they continued with their daily routines.

Takayama Akito was stuck on a disc shaped structure on top of a 90-story building called "The Thorn" for some reason…

* * *

><p>Earlier that morning,<p>

Takayama Akito, the young 13-year old high school student was just about to leave his dorm room. He had blonde-hair that was dyed, brown eyes and wore a white hoodie under his high school uniform.

He was a regular student who had no power whatsoever, a Level 0.

There will be regular classes today unlike yesterday's special power scan. The subjects in his school's curriculum included Modern Japanese, Mathematics, Linguistics, Science and History. And special subjects from the Power Development Curriculum were also heavily taught.

He often skipped classes in the past but for some reason he felt like trying a bit harder today thanks to a certain someone.

As Akito reached for his room's entrance, a shout resounded in the upper floor of the dorm.

'Oi! Index! Don't you dare eat all the stuff inside the refrigerator which Kamijou-san luckily got from that bargain sale you hear?!' A voice that seemed to belong a teenager could be heard.

'They're noisy as always… tsk…' Akito scowled as he locked the door to his room. He then walked along the street to the right which he had always done.

He did not think much of his daily life.

Just go to school, get out and do something else. That was his routine. He hated every person at his school even if they were a Level 0 just like him. All they did was following Academy City's every whim like mindless insects is what Akito had thought since a month after moving into Academy City. Thus, he often skipped out.

However he had decided to attend today since he was feeling unusually motivated.

Although he often played hookie, he had already memorized the route to route his school. So much that he closed his eyes and listened to the music that was coming out of his earphones whenever there was no around. He had already estimated each distance from the next turning point by the number of steps he took.

_That stalker will be there again…_

Akito remembered the glases-wearing class rep, the one who wanted to stop Akito's juvenile behavior, and how Akito in return, brushed him off.

Should I apologize or just forget anything happened? Is what Akito thought.

Suddenly, he collided into what felt like a solid object in the middle of a side walk.

'Ow!'

Akito stumbled backwards. A painful sensation covered his nose which was the first to make contact with the object.

The boy was sure there was nothing there a while ago when he took a brief glance at the side walk before closing his eyes to listen to his music.

'Huh?'

Akito looked at his front where he made contact with something like a wall but there was nothing, only an empty side walk. He was confused for a second before silently standing up.

This time he walked forward slowly.

*Thud*

This time, his forehead bumped into something but there was still nothing in front of him.

'What… is this…?' Akito muttered as he touched the space where he bumped his head.

It was like an invisible wall was just standing in the middle of the side walk, preventing Akito from going any further.

Akito noticed that the invisible wall joined perpendicularly with the white wall of a building to his right. He tried kicking it but nothing happened. It was solid as a brick wall.

He tried going around through the road to his left but another invisible wall stopped him.

'This is getting really annoying…'

He reached for the top of the wall, hoping to climb it but a third wall erupted itself….

The boy was desperate. He then decided to retreat for now so he went back the way he came but a fourth invisible wall trapped him.

It was a sunny morning in Academy City and several people walked along a peaceful sidewalk when they saw a young boy across the street. The silly boy seems to be touching objects that do not exist like a mime.

'Grr… what the hell is happening?!' Akito turned around to hide his embarrassment as he saw strangers smiling at him.

'This is definitely an Esper's doing but…' Akito looked around the area but didn't notice anyone suspicious when suddenly, an idea occurred.

'Wa-wait could it be? No way…' The boy smiled for the first time in a while.

'Did I just reach Level 1?! Is this my power?'

'Uwooohhh!' The boy raised his fist in triumph as if he just reached the end of a long battle.

Akito's favorite victory music from a certain RPG rang in the background to commemorate his leveling up (not really).

Yes. Takayama Akito, the blonde-haired badass delinquent, at the early age of 13, once known to be a genius has obtained the power to trap himself inside a bo—Akito slammed his fist on the imaginary wall.

The boy rejected the idea for if it were true then he would be stranded in the middle of a sidewalk his entire life. He would gain weird nicknames like "Sidewalk Akito-kun~" and be treated like a hobo. Shin and Mikoshiba would come to the barrier and console him out of pity. Haruka would become the president of Japan and propose a plan to destroy the invisible barrier.

Akito then considered other possibilities for the barrier's existence before noticing a small, odd-looking strip of paper stuck to the wall of a certain building. He took it off and found a message that read,

'Follow this maze if you don't want your Haruka-oneechan to be harmed~'

The young high school student scowled at the message before crumpling it into a ball and tossing it into a nearby trashcan.

_Tsk... What has that girl gotten herself into this time?_

Akito suddenly turned serious.

_What is this maze though? I'm completely trapped inside a box for crying out loud!_

He inspected the barriers again and noticed an opening appeared from where he had come from. That strip of paper must have been the trigger for the change.

Without another word, the Level 0 made his move, completely forgetting about school.

* * *

><p>Inside a certain high school,<p>

Freshmen students were casually talking to each other as they waited for their homeroom teacher to arrive. It was your average peaceful day.

'Uhmm… Tomoya-kun have you seen Haruka-san around?'

Aki, one of Haruka's friends, approached and asked the class rep while looking unusually nervous. Both of them were on the same class and their seats were far apart.

'Hm? No, I haven't seen her. Did you check her class?' Tomoya replied.

'Yes but she was nowhere to be found…' The meek, short-haird girl muttered.

The glasses-boy found it strange that Aki was searching for Haruka so early in the morning.

'You seem very close to Tatemiya-san, Aki-chan. Hm? What's wrong?' The class rep noticed Aki's nervousness.

Tomoya tilted his head wondering what was going on.

* * *

><p>Takayama Akito ran through the streets of Academy City which were surrounded by invisible dividers like a maze. Only the boy could touch them. He ran his fingertips along the invisible boundary as he moved to identify any openings in the maze.<p>

The starting point he used as reference was the sidewalk only one block in distance away from his school.

_How the hell is this possible?_

From his inspection earlier at the starting point, Akito determined that the maze had a height of 7 feet relative to the ground which remained consistent wherever he went, the width however, varied with each portion but was usually a meter long. He was now several dozens of meters from the starting point where he had took the strip of paper.

Every person, object, cleaning robot he encountered phased through the wall as if it didn't exist.

_So I am really the only one being affected huh? Guess I'll just play along for now._

Akito did not anticipate that he would be in such a weird situation first thing in the morning but he remained calm in order to know the nature of the enemy. He reached for his pocket to get his phone and dialed Haruka's number which she insistently gave despite all his retorts.

The phone rang for a while but there was no answer.

He tried again but with the same result.

'I should've expected that.' The boy muttered. He then retracted the phone back into his pocket. He didn't bother contacting Anti-Skill because he feared that he might be being watched.

He slowed down each time he came close to a corner of a street because he anticipated that the walls would make him turn at specific direction.

He crossed through an underpass, several alleys and parks all around District 7. Not minding all the stares he was receiving.

The passage made up of invisible walls seemed to continue on endlessly until it reached a certain building.

'What the hell?'

Akito did not proceed further. Confusion covered his entire face.

The building was a traditional Japanese bathhouse. In front of it was a small road where Akito was standing in the middle of.

The boy tried to feel around the invisible walls on his left and right sides, and sure enough, there were no openings which meant he had to enter the public bathhouse.

He carefully slid the door open, peeking inside. There was nobody around the lobby area including the person who is supposed to tend to the counter.

Akito hesitatingly went inside. It was his first time in a bathhouse. The interior was more spacious than he originally thought and traditional decorations can be all around. There was a resting area to his left and a vending machine some distance away. He continued to follow the invisible walls until he reached the middle of the lobby area in front of the counter which was in between the entrances to the male and female changing rooms. Further inside would be the gender-specific baths themselves.

There was an opening to his left side which led to the female baths.

'Oi oi oi… this isn't funny anymore…' Akito said disdainfully.

He took slow steps before peaking underneath the cloth which hang from above the entrance and had a character that meant "women".

The changing room was unusually covered in steam but he could see several rows of lockers nearby. He heard one open from far away followed by a sound of footsteps which slowly faded most likely heading towards the bath area.

The delinquent was well aware that if he were to be seen doing such suspicious things, someone will report him to the authorities and be labeled as an extreme super pervert his entire life.

'Arghh! Whatever!'

Takayama Akito had reached his limit. _That girl_ was in trouble and he had to save her but it required him to enter a bath which was absolutely forbidden for men. He considered all the women who might be changing or just gone out of the bath and had only towels on.

There was only one option left for him.

He then took a deep breath and…

'Waaahhh!'

The young delinquent charged ahead. He closed his eyes and stretched his arms to the sides, using the invisible walls as his guide.

to be continued...

* * *

><p><strong>END AN:<strong>

**This ridiculous idea came into my mind recently. It was too difficult to turn into a story though but in the end it was too weird to pass up.**

**Here's hoping for more feedback~**

**EOF**


	5. REBEL part 2

**Chapter 5 – REBEL/-pt.2**

* * *

><p>Takayama Akito was standing on a small road in front of a traditional Japanese bathhouse looking exhausted. He had blindly followed the invisible walls around the women's changing room of the public bath which led him back outside. He was unaware that there were several middle-aged women and college students that had only towels on standing in front of their lockers which stared at Akito like a young juvenile boy at the peak of his youth.<p>

'Oh my… kids these days are so bold~' said one young housewife as she crossed her arms under her endowed chest wrapped in a towel.

Shortly afterwards, he found another white strip of paper near the door of the bathhouse which read:

"Continue following this maze."

'Damn…. These bastards are just toying with me.' Akito tried to catch his breath before moving on, erasing the recent events from his mind.

The invisible walls guided Akito along the small road which can only fit two vehicles on both sides, past the public bathhouse. Akito passed by a number of houses and dorms that surrounded the road which extended for a mile. The road was completely empty.

'That girl owes me big time for this…'

Haruka was the only person Akito knew who originally had no connection to Academy City and the time they spent together harassing each other in middle school was the only comforting bond the boy had in this twisted city. Though, Akito got jealous of the girl after she reached Level 4 in such a short period of time after arriving in Academy City. So much that he even studied her Personal Reality, equations and other characteristics to a certain extent in order to progress his own level but it didn't bear any fruit. Even after studying other Espers and how they came to have their power, Akito couldn't find the specific path to becoming one.

A three-way junction can finally be seen as Akito was reaching the end of the small road.

Akito suddenly took his phone from his right pocket, turned it on and brought it over to his ear.

'….'

The boy then removed the phone from his ear and turned it off after a minute. He did not call anybody.

'Just as I thought, there's something that's following me… ' Akito muttered as he continued to run. His left hand was still sliding through the invisible wall as a guide.

He tried not to draw attention by pretending to call someone before briefly taking a glance at the reflection from his phone's screen where he saw a large blurry white figure like a ghost about 6 meters behind him. There was no reaction from the ones pursuing him when he tried to call Haruka earlier so they must be lax with their security.

'I thought it was odd that a strip of paper would just appear out of thin air. These guys are seriously mocking me. But I can't make my move yet, I have to wait for a chance.' Akito muttered as he reached the end of the junction.

The end of the junction brought about new scenery far different from the peaceful District 7.

Akito was now in District 15 which was Academy City's largest shopping district. Nearly hundreds of people gathered around the area circulating through all the malls and department stores that towered over the streets. There were dozens of billboards that stood atop several buildings in different streets. The area was completely filled with noise of multiple origins such that a person may not be able to hear what the person standing next to them was saying.

He proceeded further along the street he was on, trying not to bump into anyone while still following the invisible walls. He hesitated to check on his pursuers again using his phone or the windows in front of shops before reaching a large intersection that was completely engulfed with a mass number of people similar to the Shibuya crossing.

'This is the first time I've been in this part of this district. I think this is the center of the whole district.' Akito looked at all the people that surrounded him.

The walls lead him straight forward to a gigantic tower-like structure, taller than any building he has ever seen in his life. Its walls were a pale platinum color from top to bottom and all the glass windows it had were a dark shade of blue. There was a big needle sticking out at the very top and a circular disc platform surrounding its base.

Akito knew this building by its famous name, 'The Thorn'. The building was owned by a big Japanese banking firm and was known throughout Academy City as one of the biggest structures ever built in Japanese soil. The lower floors contained dozens of department stores and high class restaurants while the middle and upper floors contained luxurious resorts, parks and a hotel.

'Well this was unexpected. Is he gonna make me go shopping this time?' Akito said sarcastically.

There were about 50 people going in and out of the first floor of the building. Akito noticed several drum-shaped cleaning robots roaming around the area. The floor area was rectangular in shaped and easily surpasses 300 of meters in length. The invisible walls made him go around in circle on the first floor and then he saw the strip note again.

"Go to the top floor and climb the stairs to the thorn."

By this time, Akito had found out what the Esper's ability was and his effective range.

The invisible walls led Akito to one of the five elevators in the first floor. The elevator had 6 columns of buttons. Seeing so many floor buttons looked so surreal for Akito however this was not the time to be sightseeing so he chose the very top floor from the wide selection of buttons. After reaching the top floor, he headed towards a thick pillar in the middle of the circular floor which contained an entrance to a staircase and had firefighting equipment sealed in a box in case of emergency. There was not a single person on the top floor which was entirely surrounded by glass panels used for viewing the scenery around The Thorn.

Akito inspected his surroundings. He was concealed by five invisible walls on all sides like a cube.

The boy shouted his deep hatred for Espers before calming down and proceeding with his plan.

'That girl isn't here huh. These guys just wanted to delay for something.'

Akito took a black widescreen phone from his grey messenger bag.

'So there really were two of them. One was an Esper that specialized in concealing people and the other was a Hypnosis-type that needs to be in a certain range from his target in order for his psychic suggestion to work.' Akito muttered as he checked on his widescreen phone which showed several images from security cameras in a grid-like fashion. He highlighted one of them which came from a security camera from the floor beneath him. The image showed slightly blurry figures of two boys standing a meter away from the entrance to the stairs, one had a rather chubby physique and was reading manga while the other one was skinny, had Kappa-like hair and his left hand was on the other boy's right shoulder.

Akito found out that objects he owned can pass through the barriers which he tested earlier by throwing one end of his earphones to the other side of the barrier on top of The Thorn which led him to figure out that the power was some sort of Hypnotism that fooled his senses.

The skinny boy who had his hand on chubby one was probably a concealment Esper that turns himself and other people invisible by touching them, Akito called it Ghost since he can see their blurry reflection through a mirror. However, using the image processing of the security camera, Akito was able to reduce the effects of boy's power slightly.

'They look familiar somehow… oh well those two are dead meat now~'

Akito then took a semi-oval shaped game console with a logo of 'PDP' from his bag and played with it.

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><p>Inside the top floor of "The Thorn",<p>

'How long were we supposed to mess with him again?' The skinny boy with the Kappa-like hair inquired to his friend.

'Beats me… That guy said we should keep him here as long as possible so let's say we stop after I finish reading Magical Powered Kanamin.' The chubby one of the two said as he read his manga.

'Serves that guy right! After beating us up he got himself into trouble with some Skill-Outs and now he has paid the price.'

Suddenly, three drum-shaped robots appeared from the elevator in front of them.

'TARGET INITIALISED. CLEANING SEQUENCE ENGAGED.'

The three robots charged at full-speed in a pyramid formation towards the two boys.

'Wha-what the hell is going on?!' The skinny boy removed his hand from the other boy in order to evade one of the two robots going towards the middle of the two boys.

'Gwaaahh!' The chubby boy on the left stumbled a bit before getting hit by a robot. The robots ceased shortly afterwards.

'DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME, DAMN ESPERS!' Akito appeared suddenly from the stairs behind them carrying a fire extinguisher.

He sprayed the contents of the fire extinguisher mercilessly on the two boys before throwing the tank to the chubby boy thus eliminating his Hypnotism ability from the battle now only one person left.

The skinny boy used his Ghost to conceal himself however Akito, the non-Esper of the three was still able to see the white chemicals from the fire extinguisher that he had sprayed unto the boy.

Akito tackled the boy who was partially invisible before delivering a quick right hook to the area where he assumed was the face.

'Arghh!' The boy was then unable to maintain his Ghost, showing his entire body.

'So…. Whose idea was that bathhouse?' Akito said with a sadistic smile to the skinny boy while sitting on top him before grabbing his collar.

'I-I'll tell you what I know so please don't hurt me!' Despair sank in the skin boy's heart as he witnessed his defeat.

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><p>Inside a certain hotel room inside The Thorn,<p>

'…. so we have our hands full with the Roman Catholic Church on the outside and the Skill-Outs on the inside. The Skill-Outs especially have been causing quite a stir around Academy City.' A medium-sized monitor sat atop a coffee table near a window. A male voice came from the monitor which only showed static in the screen.

'Who cares about that crap? Just tell me what you want me to do.' A young man with shoulder-length blonde hair wearing a dark maroon suit lay on top of a comfortable-looking bed some distance from the monitor. He was alone in the luxurious hotel room.

'You are unruly as ever, you damn brat. Anyway we've received reports of Skill-Out activity in a certain part of District 10. They're circulating weapon parts using toys as a camouflage for Anti-Skill. We also just received info that they captured a Level 4 student recently and might be trying to sell her off to their foreign investor for experimentation in exchange for more weaponry. SCHOOL is to take down the Skill-Outs in that area and prevent them from exporting that Esper out of the country to protect Academy City secrets.' The voice from the monitor said explicitly.

'I'll do it myself. It might be good practice before I take down Number One. Anyway about that Level 4, is she any strong?' The young man said sounding curiously.

'She originally infiltrated a Skill-Out facility and took out most of the men there but was taken down due to a device known as Capacity Down.'

'That's good enough. I'll bring her to our side. SCHOOL is lacking in firepower for the upcoming battle. No problems right?' The young man smiled.

'Just finish things quickly before other organizations of the dark side exploit this situation…' The monitor turned off suddenly, signaling the end of their conversation.

'Such a troublesome errand, at least I get a prize for my efforts this time.' The young man known as the Number Two Level 5 Dark Matter was referring to the Level 4 Esper he was planning to abduct. He then got up and left the room to begin his mission.

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><p>'Tch… That girl wasn't there and those scumbags just wasted my time. I can't tell if they're lying or not though so I have to check up on the school.' Akito tied the two Espers and left them on the circular platform of The Thorn before locking the door to the stairs. The cleaning robots were reprogrammed as guard dogs in case they leave their prison. He was now on the large intersection of District 15 and was heading towards his school in District 7 which was quite a distance away. 'Espers really are a pain in the ass.'<p>

By the time Akito had reached his school, classes were already over and a lot of students were already leaving the area. The sun was about to set.

'Huh? Takayama-san? So you finally had a change of heart and decided to come to school~!' Atsuchi Tomoya was in front of the school gate when he stumbled upon Akito who was out of breath. The bespectacled boy gave a triumphant pose as if he just accomplished his mission. 'Though you missed class completely, I'll just let you borrow my notes in the meantime so please be on time tomorrow.'

'Shut it, four-eyes. Have you seen that girl?' Akito was desperately trying to catch his breath.

'_That girl_? You mean Tatemiya-san? She was absent the whole day apparently. Aki-chan event went around the entire school looking for her.' Tomoya rubbed his chin as he recalled.

Akito felt his heart sank as he heard those words.

'What's wrong Takayama-san?' The black haired boy asked.

Without warning, Akito began to run towards a certain direction away from the school.

'W-w-wait Takayama-san!' Tomoya grabbed Akito's arm before he could proceed any further. 'Tatemiya-san is in trouble isn't she?'

'I don't have time to waste with you. Let go…'

'In that case, let me help you!' Tomoya pleaded.

'You'll just get in the way, damn esper…'

'I won't! In fact, my Clairvoyance will be able to help you track down Tatemiya-san!' Tomoya said desperately, determined not to let the young boy go alone.

It was true. Akito who had no power whatsoever had an impossible task of tracking a girl within such a large city as Academy City with only a vague idea in his mind. Having an Esper that specializes in searching would be an immense help. Akito was aware of this but…

'Please, Takayama-san!' The bespectacled boy with black hair tightened his grip around Akito's arm.

Akito cursed his powerlessness before….

'…. Just don't trip me up, Esper.' Akito faced Tomoya who then let go of his arm.

'Yes!' Tomoya did a salute to Akito who sighed at the bespectacled boy's energy. 'So do we have any leads, Takayama-san?'

'Just call me "Akito". That boy with the Ghost ability said he was paid by a bunch of thugs, most likely Skill-Outs, so we might get some clue in District 10.' Akito said explicitly.

Tomoya happily nodded but suddenly asked something that was out of topic.

'By the way Akito-kun….'

'?'

'Aren't you still identified as an Esper even though you're a Level 0?' Tomoya tilted his head while questioning the young boy's earlier remark which implied that he was not an Esper.

'….'

Akito kicked Tomoya's shin as the glasses boy questioned his cool line. Tomoya howled in pain.

The two boys then made their move and left District 7.

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><p>They arrived at a desolate part of District 10 using a bus. There were a few people around the area and the overall atmosphere seemed kind of bleak.<p>

Akito then began to ask for the whereabouts of their friend. Tomoya used his Clairvoyance to see through all the buildings in the area. But they couldn't find any leads. It was night time already in Academy City.

'Damn it… not a single person saw her….' Akito slumped on a bench and thought of other alternatives for the girl's locations.

'Akito-kun… that truck that passed us by just now….'

'Huh? What about that truck?' Akito looking puzzled.

'It had weird cargo. There were black and white mechanical parts but there were also toys of the same color mixed in. I think if those parts were combined, it would have an appearance – no it would become some kind of gun…' Tomoya stated his findings to the young boy.

'Like this?' Akito pulled out a handgun which had black and white color in a puzzle-like design.

'W-w-where'd you get that Akito-kun? That's dangerous!' Tomoya nervously waved for the young boy to put the gun away.

'I snagged it from one of the two idiots that made me go through some annoying treasure hunt.' Akito said with a bored tone as he didn't want to recall that incident anymore. 'I think we should follow that truck. That girl might've tried to recklessly ambush a Skill-Out hideout while she was out patrolling as part of Judgment.'

Akito's guess almost hit the mark but he did not consider the chance that Tatemiya Haruka, the idol of his entire school and the student relied upon by her teachers, got lost while going to a convenience store and just happened to stumble upon some Skill-Outs.

'U-umm… well if you put it that way… she does have destructive tendencies sometimes...' Tomoya made a wry smile as a sweat bullet formed on his face.

The two followed the delivery truck as it went past a few blocks before reaching a rectangular a building which was surrounded by a fence a short distance from its walls. There were about 5 people in front of the building so they decided to hide behind the bush on the adjacent vacant lot near one side of the fence to the left of the building. The delivery truck had entered the entrance to the underground parking lot in front of them.

'So how is it?' Akito inquired to the boy with the ability to see through solid objects.

'I am still only Level 3, I can only see this side of the underground parking lot, the first and second floor, and only a quarter of the third floor of the building, Akito-kun. We might have to come a bit closer.' Tomoya said quietly.

'Let me try something…' Akito pulled out a widescreen phone from his messenger bag and typed several texts inside a command line interface of a certain application. Several lines of text which Tomoya couldn't understand appeared from the phone's screen. 'No good… there's no wireless access point around. Let's gun it.'

Akito climbed the fence as soon as the coast was clear.

'W-wait Akito-kun!' Tomoya tried to shout but lowered his voice instead in order to not draw any attention before climbing the fence as well.

They ran stealthily through the grounds towards the building before reaching a door beside the entrance to the underground parking lot. Tomoya had his Clairvoyance on to ensure that they won't bump into anyone.

'There doesn't seem to be anyone past that door.' Tomoya muttered.

'These guys are sloppy with their work.' Akito opened the door effortlessly.

They entered a dark messy hallway which had several boxes and chairs lying around.

'Hm? I think I can use this…' Akito noticed one of the boxes contained several mechanical parts and wires before bending over and checking each one of them.

'I don't think Tatemiya-san is around here. We should go up a floor to the middle so I can see all around the building – Eh? What are you doing Akito-kun?' Tomoya noticed the young boy disassemble the handgun which he showed earlier and modifying it using the tools inside a box.

'Can't you tell? I'm upgrading this baby~' the young high school boy made a sinister smile.

'U-umm Takayama Akito-san, don't forget we're here to save our friend…' Tomoya nervously said.

'I know I know. It's just that we might encounter a situation where we have to fight back—'

Suddenly several explosions came from the front of the building they were in. The ground beneath them shook heavily.

'What the hell was that?' Akito sounding confused.

'There's a person outside fighting the Skill-Outs! and… ' Tomoya looked nervously to the direction of the fight.

'He has giant white wings sprouting from his back!'

'Wings? Are you kidding me?!' Akito couldn't see through the building unlike Tomoya who had Clairvoyance, an ability which allowed him to see through solid objects.

The explosions continued as they talked. The building shook heavily and dust floated from above their heads as the building continued to take damage from the fight.

'I think it's some sort of Esper power! He's guarding himself from gunfire using his wings and he sends out shockwaves by swinging them around. ' Tomoya dictates his observation of the fight.

'Then this is our chance! Let's go while the Skill-Outs are preoccupied with that Esper!'

They ran along the hallway before taking a turn towards the stairs. Massive explosions and gunfire continued outside. Shockwaves destroyed windows and parts of the walls and shook the ground.

'Hey! Can you see anything from here? We're in the middle of the building now aren't we?!' Akito turned to face Tomoya who was following him. The ground was still shaking and concrete dust occasionally dropped down on them. Tomoya looked upwards to survey the upper floors.

'U-umm I think I see some people on the third floor close to the middle, there's one that's laying down on the floor with long-hair. I think that's Tatemiya-san….! Akito-kun watch out!' Tomoya noticed a large portion of the floor falling above Akito.

'?!' Akito fell forwards abruptly after noticing Tomoya had pushed him out of the way of the falling concrete.

'Gyaaah!' Tomoya made a loud scream.

The mass of concrete fell down on top of Tomoya's back. Blood came out of Tomoya's mouth and chest, staining his high school uniform as he lay on the floor.

'TOMOYA!' Akito stood up and rushed to the boy who lay motionlessly on the floor. He removed the mass of concrete off of the boy before flipping him over gently 'Oi! Are you alright?! Speak up!'

'...'

Akito knelt down beside Tomoya, trying to wake him up but there was no response.

'Oi! Wake up! Please!'

'...'

He lightly shook the boy's body but to no avail.

Despair showed on Akito's face. Tears began to fall as he watched his friend seemingly die.

Suddenly more concrete fell around him before the entire second floor collapsed on top of both of them.

'Arghhh!' Akito screamed as the floor fell above him. He felt his ribs and innards crushed by the weight of the concrete.

He was now sandwiched between piles of rubble, blood dripped out of his entire body. He stared at his fallen friend a bit before losing consciousness. 'So..rry…..'

Their mission was a failure.

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><p><strong>END AN:<strong>

**For those of you who think I am heartless for killing my own main characters, just so you know... I cried a bit.**

**So…. Yeah. Haruka joined SCHOOL, participated in the Battle Royale of dark side organizations and helped Kakine defeat Accelerator. No one was able to fight Archangel Gabriel and stop Bethlehem thus changing the whole timeline.**

**Just kidding.**

**Next chapter is about a timid girl and a young boy who is a magnet for misfortune.**

**EOF.**


	6. Deja Vu part 1

**Chapter 6 – Déjà_vu_pt.1**

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><p>Tsuyuri Aki sat on top of a bench on the roof of her school. She wore a navy blue sweater on top of her white blouse. A silver headband sat on top of her black shoulder-length hair, a portion of her bangs covered a bit of her face.<p>

The sky was clear. There were several flower beds on the edges of the roof, adding to the peaceful atmosphere.

Lunch break was almost over however her sandwich remained untouched on top of her lap.

She was all alone.

Her eyes stared blankly at her phone which displayed news about a certain incident in District 10 where a building collapsed on top of two high school students. The news indicated that the cause for the collapse was due to a gunfight between Skill-Outs. Her homeroom teacher had already announced this news to the entire class, the news of the death of Atsuchi Tomoya and Takayama Akito.

Tomoya was a very cheerful friend and a dependable class representative. Takayama Akito was a delinquent that always had trouble fitting in class, but was still a dear friend to Tatemiya Haruka. If only Aki tried to approach Akito, then things may have changed for the better is what she thought.

_It's going to be alright._

_It's going to be alright._

_The parameters are set. I just have to avoid possible Checkpoints until tonight._

Her best friend was missing and her two friends were dead but she did not give up hope.

There was a way to undo this and she was aware of it.

_It's going to be alright._

_It's going to be alright._

Her innocent face made one of determination. She then packed her things and headed back to her classroom.

Aki remained quiet the entire day. She stayed inside the classroom when school had ended, waiting for the other students to leave first.

The young girl quietly walked towards her dormitory within District 7 under the orange sky. It was already near her curfew time.

Shortly after her arrival, she quickly took a shower, ate her dinner which was leftovers from yesterday, and quietly read one of her favorite novels while she waited for herself to fall asleep.

_It's going to be alright._

Tsuyuri Aki quietly waited for powers to activate as she fell asleep.

The next thing Aki knew, it was already morning. She quickly reached for the digital clock beside her bed to stop its alarm. The clock also showed the current date.

It was October 5, the day Atsuchi Tomoya and Takayama Akito will die.

Her power known as Déjà vu activated.

_It worked!_

A relieved smile appeared on Aki's face as she accomplished the first step of her plan to save her friends.

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><p>Déjà vu was a Precognition-type ability which allowed Aki to pass her memories from her current self to her past self. The ability itself was very powerful however Aki does not have full control of it yet. According to scientists, it was always active however the ability was sensitive to interference from certain types of AIM diffusion fields. It will not activate as long as Aki makes contact with certain Espers she calls "Checkpoints", Espers who can disrupt her Déjà vu. So far, she has identified several Checkpoints including Tatemiya Haruka and Takayama Akito. Once she makes contact with them, her power will be inactive for a certain period of time or until Aki forcibly invokes it which she had small luck of succceeding. Once that time expires, her ability activates automatically during her sleep. She had previously used her ability 10 times.<p>

Aki is currently at Level 3 however the extent of her power let's her pass her memories to a time period after she made contact with the last Checkpoint. The last Checkpoint in this case was Tatemiya Haruka.

Aki went to school that morning after preparing her things, copying the exact same movements her past self did to avoid changing the timeline.

She entered her classroom same as usual. Her classmates were as noisy as ever however her attention was focused on the boy with glasses sitting at the other end of the classroom near a window. He had black hair and was wearing a neat navy blue coat over his dress shirt with a red necktie. He was Atsuchi Tomoya, the class representative with the ability called Clairvoyance and the boy who will soon die along with Takayama Akito.

'Uhmm… Tomoya-kun have you seen Haruka-san around?'

Aki approached and asked Tomoya casually, trying to mimic what she previously did.

'Hm? No, I haven't seen her. Did you check her class?' Tomoya replied.

Aki felt an unpleasant sensation in her body. She was talking to her friend normally with the knowledge that he will die soon. She felt her stomach might give in but she tried to resist.

'Yes but she was nowhere to be found…' Aki muttered now sounding quite nervous.

Tomoya once again found it strange that Aki was searching for Haruka so early in the morning.

'You seem very close to Tatemiya-san, Aki-chan. Hm? What's wrong?' The class rep noticed Aki's nervousness.

Tomoya tilted his head wondering what was going on.

Aki continued the façade as much as possible or else the events might change unpredictably.

'No… it's nothing…' Aki walked to her seat which was second to the last row. She sat beside an empty seat that was next to the window.

Aki's plan was to go through the cycle of October 5th once in order to observe what actually occurred during the incident. Afterwards, she will go through the cycle again and figure out the most appropriate way to prevent the situation.

She must carefully control her movements in order to prevent the timeline from deviating inexplicably—

'G'MOOORNIING! AKI-SAAA~NN!'

From out of nowhere, a loud voice called out her name.

'Uwaaaaahhh!' Aki jumped out of her seat in surprise.

A girl with short pale blonde hair and emerald green eyes appeared on Aki's right, whom was startled by the other girl's reaction from her greeting. Her skin was pale like a doll's.

'Ahh sorry Aki-san! My bad!' The girl with short blonde hair clasped her hands apologetically.

'U-uhh Good morning Meme-chan...' Aki wiped the tears from her eyes after being surprised suddenly.

'A-are you alright? Here I've got some chocolate with me.'

The girl known as Mashiro Meme comforted Aki until she had calmed down before returning to her seat right next to Aki.

Aki was unable to remember exactly what her previous response here was but she was pretty sure it was similar so it will hopefully have no effect on the timeline.

Afterwards, their homeroom teacher Usui Shizuka arrived and began class.

* * *

><p>Several hours later, class has ended and students began to leave for their dormitories.<p>

'Hm? Aki-san you're not going home yet?' Meme asked the girl next to her as she packed her things.

'I'm just waiting for someone…' Aki lied.

In the previous cycle, she left quite early however in this cycle she will follow Tomoya without him noticing.

Aki watched Tomoya leave the classroom. She waited for a bit until only a few students were left in the classroom in order to avoid making contact with other Checkpoints then she followed behind him a fair distance down the stairs and to the school grounds.

She hid behind the trees, maintaining herself in Tomoya's blindspot as she followed him through the grounds towards the school gate when,

'Huh? Takayama-san? So you finally had a change of heart and decided to come to school~!' Tomoya stood in front of the school gate when he stumbled upon Akito who was out of breath. The bespectacled boy gave a triumphant pose as if he just accomplished his mission. 'Though you missed class completely, I'll just let you borrow my notes in the meantime so please be on time tomorrow.'

'?!' Aki was surprised when she saw Akito. She then moved to a tree closer to the two boys in order to hear their conversation.

'Shut it, four-eyes. Have you seen that girl?' Akito was desperately trying to catch his breath.

'_That girl_? You mean Tatemiya-san? She was absent the whole day apparently. Aki-chan even went around the entire school looking for her.' Tomoya rubbed his chin as he recalled.

'Akito-san was looking for Haruka-san? Could the building they were heading have some kind of connection with Haruka-san?' Aki muttered to herself.

'W-w-wait Takayama-san!' Tomoya grabbed Akito's arm before he could proceed any further. 'Tatemiya-san is in trouble isn't she?'

'I don't have time to waste with you. Let go…'

Aki felt a cold sweat drop from the back of her neck. The situation was more complicated than she had previously thought.

'Yes! So do we have any leads, Takayama-san?' Tomoya asked Akito.

'Just call me "Akito". That boy with the Ghost ability said he was paid by a bunch of thugs, most likely Skill-Outs, so we might get some clue in District 10.' Akito said explicitly.

'District 10…' Aki contemplated.

Aki then watched the two boys leave before following them from a distance.

'It's faster if we go to District 10 by bus.' Tomoya suggested to Akito.

The two then reached a bus stop a fair distance away from their school.

Aki was slightly exhausted from the running. She could not go on the bus along with them or they will notice her so she hid behind a corner of the street away from the bus stop.

The bus Akito and Tomoya were on passed by Aki however they did not notice her.

Aki came out of the corner and waited for a taxi which came shortly.

'Umm… please follow that bus over there. It is going to District 10.' Aki ordered the taxi driver.

'Y-yes ma'am' the taxi driver followed Aki's weird instruction.

The sun had almost set in Academy City.

The bus had arrived at a desolate part of District 10 where there were a few buildings and mostly comprised of vacant lots.

Aki stopped the taxi in the adjacent corner of the street some distance away from where the bus stopped and paid the driver. She then continued to monitor them while hiding from a distance when she saw Tomoya looking at the buildings thoroughly one by one.

'Oh no Tomoya-kun is using his Clairvoyance!' Aki hurriedly moved farther away in order to not get in range of the boy's ability.

She tried to hide behind the boy's blind spot until the boy notice a truck pass by. Tomoya then talked to Akito about the truck to which then they got up and followed.

'Are they following that truck?' Aki began to follow the two boys. She was already extremely tired from all the running however she persevered.

She then stopped after seeing the building she was closing in on. It was the building that mysteriously collapsed on top of the two boys.

'?!'

Aki felt the unpleasant sensation again. Cold sweat dropped all around her. She had to follow her plan of observing everything in order to come up with a solution during the next cycle which meant that she had to witness the building collapse on top of the two.

The building was surrounded by a fence. The distance from the building to the fence was about 10 meters except for the front which had a distance of about 40. The building was in between a vacant lot and a smaller building and in front of the building was a vertical road that connects with the road along the three. Aki hid behind a post box on the street along the vertical road.

She could see about 5 people in front of the building's main entrance before watching Akito and Tomoya climb the fence near the vacant lot and run towards the building.

'Skill-Outs?'

Suddenly a black car stopped in front of the small building besides the hideout for the thugs. It was far from where Aki was hiding but she could still see a young man with long blonde hair and a dark maroon suit come out of the passenger seat of the car.

The black car did not leave most likely waiting for the young man to finish his business.

'Is he also one of them?'

The young man leisurely walked towards the building Akito and Tomoya infiltrated.

He was not a Skill-Out nor was he a thug.

He was Kakine Teitoku, Academy City's Number Two Level 5 Dark Matter.

The young man wordlessly blew apart the steel gate in front of the building. However he did not touch the gate, it just blew apart the instant Kakine Teitoku came near it.

'On second thought, this will hardly be enough practice for when I fight Number One…' the Level 5 Dark Matter smiled as he saw the group of Skill-Outs in front of the building.

'Oi! What the hell are you doing here?!' The man known as Jun noticed the Esper's presence as soon as the gate got destroyed. He was one of the Skill-Outs that were near the main entrance.

Kakine Teitoku did not answer. He continued to casually walk towards the building.

'Oh a smart ass ehh…' The Skill-Outs pulled out their handguns from their belts and aimed them at the Esper.

Multiple gunshots rang out but they did not hit Kakine Teitoku.

It seemed that an invisible barrier covered the Level 5.

'Why don't you scum try out bigger guns than those?' The blonde haired esper laughed.

The invisible barrier which surrounded the Level 5 gradually began to take shape until it turned into some sort of white cocoon before spreading into a pair of white wings.

Suddenly more people came out the main entrance carrying massive weaponry.

'Here, Jun-san!' A man named Mikoshiba handed out a machine gun to his friend before aiming his rocket launcher at the esper.

'I think that's Academy City's Number Two! The higher ups of Academy City must have sent him to take us out!'

The Level 5 swung his wings towards the Skill-Outs. The shock wave blew the thugs away however they got up after a few seconds, bringing out their riot shields in order to increase their defenses.

Aki watched as the battle began. The building took damage with each passing second.

Fear slowly engulfed her.

She turned her eyes away before crouching down as gunfire resounded in the area.

The ground shook heavily.

Suddenly, the building began its collapse.

_No! Please stop it!_

Her eyes were wide open as her tears dropped one after another.

The shock was too much for her.

She suddenly fell unconscious unto the street the mental stress took its toll on her.

* * *

><p>Aki reached out a hand to stop her digital clock's alarm. It was October 5th again. Her Déjà vu activated without her knowing.<p>

She stayed silent for a while before getting out of her bed to get ready for school.

It may have been because the memory transfer was incomplete or the shock blurred her memory but she moved mechanically like a robot showing no emotion.

She entered school and continued her facade almost automatically.

_There is only one thing I can do. I have to stop Tomoya-kun and Akito-kun._

If she stops Tomoya and Akito from going into the building she may be able to save them however….

What if Tatemiya Haruka was in that building?

What if that truck that Tomoya saw was carrying Tatemiya Haruka, her best friend?

That would explain why they chased that truck in the first place.

And Haruka's body was not discovered because she was inside the truck in the underground parking lot.

These ideas entered her mind suddenly.

She was now in the corner of a street a distance away from the bus stop.

Akito and Tomoya entered the bus.

What was she going to do?

Save her two classmates in exchange for her best friend?

The taxi she rode during the last cycle passed her.

The burden was too much.

Aki knelt down on the street and cried when suddenly…

'Uwaaahh! Look out!'

A spiky haired boy wearing an orange shirt under his black high school uniform ran into her.

Aki now lay on the ground while the spiky haired boy was on top of her.

Tears were still flowing from Aki's face.

Kamijou Touma who was now on top of a crying Tsuyuri Aki, froze as he realized the situation he was in. If a stranger were to see them, they would think that the boy pinned down the innocent girl. He would be labeled as a molester, a pervert, a disgrace and a scum of society, is what he thought.

'UWAAAAHH! I'M SORRY! I-It's not what it looks like! I did not intend for this situation to happen!' Kamijou Touma got up suddenly and made a proper bow seiza style.

However Aki was unfazed.

'I-It's fine….' She slowly sat up. Her eyes were still filled with tears.

'E-err Is something the matter miss?' Touma tilted his head in confusion.

'I'm powerless… I can't save my friends…' The young girl muttered to herself. She was a complete wreck.

'W-well let's stand up first, there's no point sitting here on the ground. Here…' Touma reached out a hand to Aki to help her stand up.

Aki quietly grabbed the hand and stood up.

'What should I do….they are going to die….' Aki said quietly trying to wipe her tears away.

'…..what happened?' Touma asked her seriously.

'I predicted the future with my ability but… I can't do anything about it! They're going to die!' Aki said desperately.

'…'

Touma thought about what the young girl had said.

He did not have a complete idea what the situation was or how difficult the problem was. The situation itself may be impossible however there was something he can say for sure….

'But they're still your friends right? The fact that you have to try and save them doesn't change right?' Touma stated the facts to Aki.

'Are you just going to give up without doing anything?' The spiky haired boy made a determined look indicating that he was completely serious.

He was right.

There may still be a way to turn things around.

Nothing good will come out if she didn't act. The young girl still has to try no matter how desperate the situation was.

She was well aware of all of this now.

'Yes you're right! There may still be a way!' Aki wiped all her tears away and gathered her courage. She was still unsure what the future will hold for her but she still has to try. 'I'm Tsuyuri Aki.'

The girl made a gentle smile.

'Kamijou Touma. I'll help you so let's go save your friends!'

Kamijou Touma entered the fray.

* * *

><p><strong>END AN:<strong>

**Bowing seiza style is the ultimate form of apology for Japanese.**

**Mashiro Meme's name is pronounced as Meh-meh not miim.**

**Reviews, criticisms, and messages are always appreciated!**

**EOF**


	7. Deja Vu part 2

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7 - Déjà_vu_pt.2<strong>

* * *

><p>'…. so what you're saying is that your Precognition ability called Déjà vu lets you pass your memories to your past self? Is that some kind of time travelling ability?' Kamijou Touma furrowed his eyebrows after hearing the young girl's complicated explanation.<p>

'Well…. I guess it's sort of like that.' Tsuyuri Aki made a nervous smile.

Despite not knowing anything about the situation, the spiky-haired high school boy willingly involved himself in someone else's conflict.

'I feel bad for getting you involved in this, Touma-san... I'm such a hopeless person...'

'No! Not at all! You said you used your powers to find out what actually happened to your friends regardless how painful it was right? I think it takes a lot of courage to do something like that!' Kamijou Touma frantically tried to cheer the girl up.

Aki looked down at her feet. She had just used her ability named Deja vu to send her memories back in time in order to figure out a way to save her friends from a collapsing building caused by a fight between Skill-Outs and an unknown esper, but decided not to stop her two friends from saving her best friend.

It was dusk now in Academy City.

The taxi they were riding in passed by several apartment buildings and complexes while heading towards District 10. Students, teachers and salarymen were already retiring to their homes and getting ready for dinner.

'Anyway about that esper you mentioned, he was fighting the Skill-Outs right? Maybe we can negotiate with him in order to prevent the building from getting destroyed?'

'Really? Do you think so Touma-san?' Aki's eyes filled with conviction despite being partially covered by her long bangs.

'If not then I'll at least try to delay him as much as I can so your friends can look for umm... Tatemiya Haruka-san was it?'

'Then I'll help you negotiate with that esper, Touma-san!'

'Ehh? But it might get dangerous if that esper turns on us.'

That esper the two are talking about was Kakine Teitoku, the second in rank among all the Level 5's in Academy City. His ability lets him create and manipulate matter that does not exist in this world. He is also involved in Academy City's dark side as part of SCHOOL however both Kamijou Touma and Tsuyuri Aki were unaware of all these facts.

'I will help! I will not just sit idly in the sidelines! Even if it was just a little bit, I got to see one of that Esper's abilities.' Aki sounded determined.

'Th-Then what can that Esper do? Hearing it from you, he sounds really strong to be able to hold his own against a group of people using large weapons.'

'Well... a pair of wings came out of his back and uhmm... he blew people away with them.. something like that...' Aki made a nervous smile showing how she did not understand the power herself.

'Hahh? Is that really some kind of esper power?' Touma scratched his head trying to figure out how a person could grow wings.

'Is it somehow related to Magic? Maybe it's some kind of spell that utilizes myths about Angels.' Touma muttered to himself.

'Shouldn't you be helping your friends in that building though?'

'Well Tomoya-kun's Clairvoyance is already enough for searching through the entire building and for avoiding people so I doubt I could be of any help there...'

The landscaped changed as the taxi arrived at District 10. There were few buildings and people around. There were no cleaning robots that were always busy roaming around and cleaning the streets.

Aki stopped the taxi near the small building where the blonde haired esper will arrive in front of.

'I think we should hide here and wait for that car to arrive, Touma-san.' Aki pointed at the small building's entrance.

The door to the small building creaked as the two high school students opened it. The interior was dark and a lot of dusts covered the floors and furniture. The first floor of the building had a typical structure of a diner. There was a dust covered counter near the entrance and several circular tables surrounded by four chairs scattered across middle of the floor. Another door was in the farthest corner of the diner which opens up to an alley on the other side of the street.

There were lots of abandoned buildings in this area of District 10 so it was a perfect place to hide anything suspicious from the authorities. It was one of the blind spots in Academy City where Anti-Skill's jurisdiction is thinned out since the distribution of Anti-Skill's workforce was more focused on guarding key parts of the city as well as disaster mitigation.

'Kyaaaaa!'

A girly screamed echoed within the diner.

'What's wro- Owwww!'

Aki tremblingly pointed at an incredibly small spider on top a table a few inches away from her as she pinched the upper part of Touma's sleeve along with his bicep.

The boy squinted his eyes at the spider before shooing it away.

Aki had a big fear of insects especially really small ones. The smaller they were the more incredible and painful Aki's reactions were.

The two moved close to a window that showed the street in front of the diner in order to keep an eye out for the car.

Meanwhile, a few blocks from where they were hiding,

'Your lagging behind, four-eyes!' Takayama Akito looked at the older high school boy behind him who was dropping quite a bit of sweat.

'I'll catch up so don't slow down for me, Akito-kun...' Tomoya panted as he tried to keep up with his younger classmate.

The delivery truck they were following was carrying parts for the assembly of weapons mixed with toys as a camouflage. Also, the truck might lead to the location of their friend, Tatemiya Haruka who they suspected was kidnapped by a special group of Skill-Outs known as REBEL.

'Come to think of it, Akito-kun... How did you find out that we might find clues here in District 10? You said the people who messed with you were paid by thugs but how were they connected to District 10?' The glasses wearing boy asked the delinquent in front of him.

'To be honest, I just picked this area because it was the closest.'

Tomoya almost stumbled after hearing that unexpected revelation but Akito continued.

'But if you consider all the news regarding the raids against the Skill-Outs and plot them out in a map, you will see that almost every area of Academy City has been involved apart from District 10 and maybe 3 other districts, excluding of course ones which have a dense number of Anti-Skill or Judgment stations.'

Tomoya thought for a bit before understanding Akito's train of thought.

'You really are something else Akito-kun! I still wonder why you are stuck as a Level 0.'

'Can we just stop talking about that Level crap already?' the blonde haired delinquent's mood turned sour at the mention of his predicament.

'Anyway, that truck has entered that gate towards that building over there. Let's head towards that vacant lot over next to the fence so you can use your Clairvoyance.' Akito pointed out the area around the bush beside a fence.

The two boys proceeded with their plan.

* * *

><p>'I think it's almost time, Touma-san. Any minute now...' The two strengthened their focus as they peered through the window.<p>

A sound of an engine can be heard from the distance.

A minute later, the black car which Aki saw in the previous cycle arrived in the exact same spot and in the exact same time as before. A young man with long blonde hair and wearing a dark maroon suit came out of the black car's passenger seat.

Touma and Aki came out of the diner as soon as they saw the young man.

'U-umm are you here perhaps to take down the Skill-Outs in this area? Can you please wait a little bit until our friends come out?' Aki pleaded to the boy with her soft and gentle voice.

The young man looked at the two slightly confused for a second before giving a sharp glare.

'You two don't smell like you're from the dark side. Who are you?'

'What do you mean?'

Suddenly the young man swung his right arm diagonally upwards. An invisible force from the young man's right side grinded along the diner's walls towards the two, breaking the windows and the ground along its path.

Touma gritted his teeth as he pushed Aki down before falling himself. The force brushed over their heads before disappearing.

'Hoh~ You have nice reactions.' The young man known as Kakine Teitoku gave a delighted expression before continuing his attack.

Touma and Aki instantly got up and rushed towards the diner to their left, avoiding the impact from some unknown force which hit the ground where they were previously on.

'Looks like negotiations won't work!' Touma looked behind him as he ran towards the exit at the back

The young man with long blonde hair looked rather pissed now as he walked inside the abandoned diner after the two.

'Then we must keep him busy until Tomoya-kun and Akito-kun make it out of the building!'

Suddenly, particles like white sand floated above the young man before gathering and compressing together to form a pair of white wings which spread out and destroyed part of the upper floor of the diner.

'No! I'll hold him off over here. You monitor the situation of your friends!'

Small piles of concrete fell around them before they opened the door to the back alley.

'B-but!'

'I can handle myself! Just get your friends out of there as soon as possible!' Touma turned towards the tall figure standing in the middle of the small building which was reduced to a pile of rubble. Dust clouds floated above them towards the night sky.

Aki grimaced at the thought of abandoning someone but shook it off shortly. She was aware that she could not dodge that esper's attacks unlike Touma.

'Then I'll contact you as soon as we get out of the building!' The young girl headed towards the back of the Skill-Out hideout.

Kakine Teitoku turned his attention towards the girl on his left side who was now fleeing. The wing on his left side changed shape and elongated into a spear, charging straight towards Aki. The girl was unaware that a long sharp object was heading towards her when the spiky-haired boy got in the middle of them and brought out his right hand towards the white spear made of Dark Matter.

The spear gradually disappeared as soon as it made contact with Touma's right hand despite its scale and force.

This was the power residing within the boy's right arm, Imagine Breaker, the power which negates any supernatural ability.

Touma charged forward. Another large pair of Dark Matter wings manifested behind the Level 5. The wings changed shape again into a pair of scythes which fell down side-by-side on the spiky haired boy.

The boy moved his right hand to the left and swept it across the pair of blades.

The wings consecutively disintegrated.

'?!'

The Level 5 Dark Matter made a disgruntled expression before sprouting another pair large of wings from his back. Kakine Teitoku continued his assault on Kamijou Touma.

This time, one of the wings turned into a blade and slashed the air horizontally towards Touma's body.

The spiky haired jumped backwards abruptly, evading the tip of the blade however another wing transformed into a a spear which shot downwards from above his head.

Touma brought out his right hand again to block. The spear gradually turned into white sand and dissipated.

'That's some interesting power you got.' Kakine smiled a bit before continuing.

The Level 5 esper moved his large wings downwards, hitting the ground and causing rubble to fly towards Touma.

'But you can't block against indirect attacks can you?'

Touma moved sideways and tried to evade as best as he could however a few rocks gashed through his school uniform.

_His attack range is too big!_

* * *

><p>'I don't think Tatemiya-san is around here. We should go up a floor to the middle so I can see all around this building – Eh? What are you doing Akito-kun?' Tomoya noticed the young boy disassemble the handgun which he showed earlier, and modifying it using the tools inside a cardboard box.<p>

'Can't you tell? I'm upgrading this baby~' the young high school boy made a sinister smile as he continued his work.

The two boys were in a dark messy hallway inside the building that was being occupied by REBEL. The walls were painted with white and grey paint however there were black smudges and dusts all over the walls. There were boxes, chairs and broken glass scattered across the floor. The rooms around them had transparent glass panels where one can see the interior of the room. The building was most likely used for manufacturing computer parts before being left its company.

'U-umm Takayama Akito-san, don't forget we're here to save our friend…' Tomoya nervously said.

'I know I know. It's just that we might encounter a situation where we have to fight back. I'll be quick so you can go on ahead if you want.' Akito continued to tinker with the gun.

'Then please hurry Akito-kun!'

Suddenly Tomoya's cellphone vibrated in his right pocket. He reached for it after a second and checked the caller's ID.

'Aki-chan?! What's wrong?' Tomoya noticed the girl's raspy voice.

'...'

Akito glanced over his classmate who was talking over the phone. The latter grew nervous after hearing each word from the phone.

'Akito-kun we must hurry! Aki-chan and her friend are trying to delay a powerful esper will come and fight with the Skill-Outs over here. She says that the aftermath will cause this building to collapse!' Tomoya turned towards Akito before returning his phone to his pocket.

'Eh? How does she know that?' Akito was puzzled over what the glasses wearing boy had said.

'She has an ability called Deja vu which lets her predict the future in some way like Precognition.' Tomoya who was a classmate and a close friend of Aki knew of her power for a long time.

'Then we really should hurry!' Akito placed the gun in his back pocket.

'The stairs are further along this hallway, close to the center of this building.' Tomoya pointed ahead of them.

The two ran through the empty hallway before turning to their left towards a wooden staircase which lead to the second floor.

'The people guarding the front entrance seems to be heading towards a certain direction.' Tomoya took a brief look at the direction of the front entrance with his Clairvoyance ability.

'Maybe they noticed the esper that girl talked about.'

After reaching the second floor, they noticed that the stairs which lead to the third floor had been cut off.

'Can you use your ability again to scout around the building?'

'Wait Akito- kun! there's someone approaching us from around that corner.' Tomoya pointed at the corner to their left which lead to another hallway.

Akito thought for a bit before,

'Then can you hold this for a while.' Akito took off his uniform's coat and handed it to Tomoya, leaving Akito with his white hoodie.

'What are you going to do?'

'Just watch.' Akito put on his hood before approaching the man beyond the corner.

'OI! What are you still doing here?! The guys at the front are having trouble fighting an esper. Go help them!' Akito appeared in front of the Skill-Out suddenly. His hood partially hid his face in the dark hallway.

The man was startled for a second before getting caught up in Akito's pace.

'Eh? We've been discovered?!' the man hurriedly passed through Akito before the latter pulled out his phone and using it to strike the back of the man's neck.

'Ughh!' The man suddenly fell unconscious.

'Here.' Akito tossed over a green beanie which he took off from the man to Tomoya. The latter caught it mid-air to his surprise.

'It'd be bad if these guys find out anything about us so we should take off our uniforms.' Akito retrieved his coat and put it in his bag.

The class representative agreed that if suspicious people were able to find out their identities, it would complicates things in the near future.

'This hat smells kind of odd...nghh' Tomoya reluctantly put on the beanie and took off uniform's coat as well.

'I see some people are on the first floor in some of the rooms... there's no one here in the immediate vicinity and... I think I see Tatemiya-san and someone else a few meters above us.' Tomoya looked around the building with his Clairvoyance.

Akito hid the unconscious body of the Skill-Out inside the nearest room before following Tomoya.

'Hello, Aki-chan? Yes. We found Tatemiya-san so please wait for us and stay where you are.' Tomoya briefly called his classmate.

The two headed for the stairs near the end of the hallway to the right.

* * *

><p>Kamijou Touma was facing against Academy City's second strongest esper, Kakine Teitoku. The latter now had three pairs of arching wings sprouting from his back as he floated a few dozens of meters from the ground.<p>

'Are you part of the Magic-side?! Why are you here in Academy City?' Kamijou Touma sounding unsure of the young man's allegiance.

'What nonsense are you spouting? Can't you see an esper power when it's right in front you?' The Level 5 mocked Touma's cluelessness 'Well I don't blame you since my Dark Matter is special.'

_So it really was an esper power? Then if I touch those wings with my right hand, they will disappear right?_

Before the spiky haired boy could think of anything else, Kakine's large wings made of Dark Matter blew a gust of wind towards the boy.

Touma ran towards the side to avoid the attack however the remains of the small building took the brunt of the attack. The small debris flew upwards and hit Touma however he was able to evade most them.

_This is bad. I can't reach him when he is flying so high up._

They were on the area a few distance away from the building Akito and Tomoya were in. The small building had been turned into ruins thanks to the fearsome power of Dark Matter.

Suddenly multiple gun shots rang out from the other side of the battlefield. The bullets hit the Level 5 however he was unfazed. The six wings protected his entire backside.

'Tsk... how annoying.'

Touma saw a group of men wearing casual clothes from across the ruins of the diner. They were carrying several handguns and assault rifles.

'Is that some kind of monster?'

'Whatever it is, it's going to be a threat. Kill it!'

The REBEL members released a barrage of bullets on Kakine who was flying several meters above using his wings made of Dark Matter. The esper guarded himself from the barrage, waiting for their ammo to be depleted.

Kamijou Touma hid behind a partition of a wall a distance away, trying to avoid getting hit by a stray bullet. His only mission was to delay Kakine Teitoku from wrecking the Skill-out building until Tsuyuri Aki's friends finish their mission.

He quickly dialed Aki's number on his phone to confirm their situation but suddenly got interrupted by a large explosion coming from above where the flying esper was.

The Skill-Outs brought out their rocket launchers and aimed them at the Level 5. The latter continued to shield himself and threw quick strikes with his wings at them whenever he got the chance.

There was nothing Touma could do anymore.

The fight escalated to the point where he will get killed instantly if he tries to get in between them.

All the boy could do now was to wait and hope that Aki's friends make it out of the building before the fight reaches them.

* * *

><p>'Akito-kun, there's someone up ahead where Tatemiya-san is.' Tomoya pointed at the room up ahead across the hallway of the third floor while using his Clairvoyance. The door was open and a light leaked out of the room.<p>

'Does he have any weapons?'

'I think he only has one handgun with him. He was the person with you during that night when I returned you your notebook. The one with short black hair and had an intimidating smile...' Tomoya recalled the night when he bumped into the two seniors.

'So they really were up to something... I just didn't realize that it would be this...' Akito remembered the two boys he hung out with. Although he had fun just following them around, he always felt that there was a secret that they were hiding.

Shin especially was mysterious, never showing any vulnerabilities or anything about himself. He was the first to approach Akito when he had just begun losing interest in school and Academy City.

'I'll take care of that guy. You get the girl out of here.'

'Are you sure, Akito-kun?'

'We have no other choice but this...'

Akito said that as he entered the room before pointing his handgun that had more black-colored parts than white at the young man with orange cat-like eyes sitting on the office chair across the room.

'Yo~ you sure took you're time. Did you enjoy that little excursion in District 15?' Shin turned his chair towards the young boy whom was pointing a gun at him.

Akito scowled at the man's easygoing voice.

'You really piss me off the most.'

'Oyah? Is that any way to talk to your senpai, my beloved kouhai?' Shin made a sly grin as he stood up from his black office chair before pointing his gun that was completely made up of white parts at the hooded young boy with blonde hair. He wasn't wearing a high school uniform, instead he was wearing a black jacket on top of a red shirt. A chain hang from his belt to the inside of his pocket.

The room they were in had several desks and chairs lined up like a meeting room. A single light bulb was turned on at the center of the room.

'Take the girl and leave!'

As soon as Akito said that, Tomoya who was behind him at the time ran towards the girl laying on the floor on the right side of the room.

Shin's eyes followed the boy wearing glasses but as soon as he did, Akito pulled the trigger of his gun, exploiting the brief moment of unawareness of his opponent.

A dull sound rang out however the bullet did not hit Shin, but the wall behind him.

Shin had leaned forward, completely avoiding the bullet before rushing towards Akito with incredible speed.

Akito was startled as soon as Shin got in front of him. He stumbled backwards, avoiding Shin's uppercut before getting hit at his right hand. The impact disarmed the gun in his hand.

The gun landed a few meters away.

'Oi oi is this all you can do? How disappointing. And that bullet just now wasn't even a real, it was just a rubber one. Did the thought of firing a gun at a human being frighten you?' Shin stood in front of the young boy who was sitting on the floor after stumbling backwards. The gun Akito had was modified to shoot rubber bullets in order to not kill his opponent.

The situation was dire.

This was Akito's first time in a serious fight. He wasn't one to participate in the frontlines. He has been involved in small fights however he was not always alone and those he fought were a far cry compared to Shin. The young man with a sly grin who was standing in front of him, clearly had experience in this sort of battles, not to mention he was drastically taller and had a longer reach.

'Shut the hell up you bastard.'

Akito quickly charged forward, throwing a punch towards Shin's upper body.

'Urghh!'

The young man stumbled backwards a bit but regained his composure instantly.

While all that was going on, Tomoya checked up on Tatemiya Haruka who was unconscious on the floor. Both her hands and legs were tied up.

_She's still breathing. Perhaps a sleeping drug?_

He brought her up and hurriedly carried her over to the other door of the room. He took a glance at Akito but,

'Just go already!' Akito shouted without turning to look at his classmate.

Tomoya then got out of the room, taking the unconscious girl with him.

'How admirable of you, hero-san. What made you so friendly with espers so suddenly?' Shin let out a sly grin as he enjoyed watching the situation in front of him.

'Pfft Don't get me wrong. Espers are still annoying as hell but people like you who just kidnap innocent people are on a whole different level of annoyance.' Akito stood on guard. He pulled out his widescreen phone, theorizing that it will increase the strength of his punch.

Shin charged forward suddenly, his right fist aimed towards the young boy's head.

Akito evaded the attack by a hair's breadth before Shin pulled out his left fist. The young blonde haired boy used his phone to block the punch. The phone broke in half at the fierce impact of the punch. His long time partner was now broken however if had taken that blow directly, it would have caused severe damage to his body is what Akito thought however,

Shin twisted his body and landed a kick to Akito's side.

'Gahhh!' The impact knocked the air out of the young boy followed by a punch that hit him in the head. The young boy got sent flying backwards. His back hit the wall before falling down.

'Sigh.. I don't get you people. Even those from the dark side have something they want to protect. Don't they realize how fun they're situation is? The excitement of the world hidden in the shadows?' Shin grinned as he look down on Akito. 'To tell you the truth, I was asked by the higher ups to infiltrate REBEL in order to find out who their foreign investor was but I found out that they were just plain fools who know nothing but fighting so I suggested all these weird stuff to keep things interesting.'

The difference in their power was clear.

Akito had no way of winning this fight. He had already noticed that one trivial fact in this situation, that Shin had never once used his gun in the fight. The gun that he slipped into his own pocket in the beginning.

He was toying with him.

The gap between them was big.

There were no other options left for Akito.

'So what?' The young boy sitting on the floor spat out some blood.

'Those two already got out. I have already accomplished what I had came here to do.'

Shin finally pointed his gun towards the boy, feeling disgusted by the boy's achievement.

'Don't give me that boring crap.'

Suddenly, Shin felt an unpleasant sensation all around his body, like being exposed to a scorching heat in the middle of the dessert.

The sensation only lasted for a few seconds.

'Pheww was that the Flare Cloak just now? Is she still around here?' Shin pointed the gun at the nearest door.

'?' Akito felt confused by what the young man had said.

No one came out. There was only silence.

'Must've been my imagination.' Shin shrugged, showing a carefree smile. 'Now then, things got boring so let's make it a little bit more exciting.'

The young man pointed his gun towards the boy's leg when,

'Shin! This is bad! An esper with monster-like powers is attacking us!' A man wearing a green bandana over his mouth appeared suddenly from the door near them.

'Oyah? This _is _bad. Guess this where we'll part ways.'

'?'

Shin fired the gun at the REBEL member's head.

*Thud*

The man fell dead on the floor.

'Another organization from the dark side must've finally decided to do a sweep. I've already made contact with a proxy during the negotiations thanks to that girl so I don't need REBEL anymore.'

The young man said that before firing a quick shot at the boy's leg.

'Gaaaahhh!' Akito yelled in pain.

'Be sure not to follow me.' Shin walked out of the room. His job here was done so he left in order to not get wrapped up in the battle between the Level 5.

REBEL will soon be eliminated from the to-do list of the dark side of Academy City.

The boy now sat upright against the wall for several minutes.

The area of the floor around his leg soaked in his blood.

What was he going to do now?

Haruka and Tomoya were now safely out of the building.

He could barely move.

The esper, said to destroy this building, might come any second.

'...'

There was no more need to worry. He has already accomplished his objective is what the boy thought.

He just sat there and waited when suddenly,

'Takayama-san!' A girl with short black hair stood by the door, seemingly exhausted.

'...Tsuyuri-san? Why are you here? This building could get attacked any minute now.'

'I can't just abandon my friends so hurry up and grab my hand.'

'...'

Akito took the hand and tried to stand up but lost his balance eventually. He stumbled sideways towards the girl before wrapping his arm around the girl's shoulder to support himself.

'T-T-T-T-T-Takayama-san?!' The girl blushed furiously at the sudden body contact.

'Sorry... Please endure my burden for now...'

'I-It's fine! Now let's get out of here.'

The two moved down in each floor of the building in a slow pace before reuniting with their friends outside the door which Akito and Tomoya originally entered in.

'Are you alright Akito-kun?! We should get you to a hospital as soon as possible!' Tomoya stood beside an unconscious Haruka. The long pony-tailed girl was fixed up in a sitting position with her back against the fence.

'There's a broken gate at the back of the building- Ah! There's Touma-san now!' Aki pointed towards her friend who was approaching them from the open gate.

'Are you guys alright? The Skill-Outs are still fighting that esper.' Touma looked around before noticing Akito's injury. 'Wahh! We should get that wrapped up immediately.'

Touma gestured for Aki to let him support the young boy.

'Don't worry. I know a good doctor in District 7.' Touma put the young boy's arm around his shoulder followed by Aki wrapping Akito's wound with her handkerchief.

'Sorry... and thank you...'

Aki let out a gentle smile as she heard words that were completely different from what the boy would usually say.

Before Akito knew it, people had slowly gathered around him, people who were completely different than those who he hanged around with in the past. He was surrounded by warmth for the first time.

_Perhaps this place isn't too bad after all._

* * *

><p><strong>END AN:<strong>

**I appreciate any and all forms of feedback!**

**If you guys still have problems imagining what Akito looks like then imagine Yukine from Noragami but a bit taller.**

**Tomoya would look like Yukio from Blue Exorcist.**

**And Haruka would most likely look like a younger Kanzaki.**

**Not sure about Aki though so just leave it to your imagination :P**

**EOF**


	8. Real Friends

**Chapter 8 - Real_friends.**

* * *

><p>'And there's this rumour, which started circulating around the net recently, about a really weird device that reverts people back to Level 0 like the opposite of the Level Upper- Oh! Speaking of machines, there's also one rumour about a group of scientists trying to develop a robot that will be capable of emulating human behaviour to the point that it can even develop a Personal Reality on its own!' Saten Ruiko excitedly enumerated all the interesting rumours she had collected to her two friends sitting on the couch across the coffee table in front of her. Her eyes sparkled with extreme enthusiasm. 'Maya-san really pulled out all the stops when I asked her for more rumours~'<p>

'Ehh~ That robot seems pretty amazing, though it's just a rumour. But that device that reverts people's levels, I wonder why would someone build something like that?' a girl with short brown hair and wearing a winter uniform meant to be worn by students of the prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School, pondered as she took a sip of her tea.

She was Misaka Mikoto, Tokiwadai's Ace and one of the seven Level 5's of Academy City, more specifically, she was the 3rd in rank among the strongest espers in Academy City.

She was also known by her nickname, Railgun, the name of her ability and her powerful signature attack.

She showed interest in the topic of conversation unlike the young girl beside her.

'Please don't be fooled by such distasteful urban legends, Onee-sama. No one in their right mind would go to such lengths to build such a pointless device.' Shirai Kuroko said with a bored tone while reading several documents in her hand. 'Besides, who would make a device that will only make themselves weaker?'

'Sigh... you have no sense of romance as always, Shirai-san~'

'Of course. I only ever think rationally. We are in Academy City after all. Researchers are only interested in progressing our abilities, not the other way around.'

They were currently in Judgment's 177th branch office.

Shirai tossed the documents to the table and made a displeased expression, not towards the alleged rumour but towards the contents of the documents she had just read.

'Honestly! those Skill-Outs have been a real annoyance lately, even kidnapping one of our fellow Judgment members for unknown reasons! At the very least, Tatemiya-san is fine now.'

'Come to think of it, there were a lot of news about the Skill-Outs recently.'

'Is that why Uiharu-san is so busy lately?' Misaka peered over to the girl working in front of several computer monitors. Countless programs were displayed in the screens, showing texts which cannot be understood by people who are uneducated in the line of computer programming and security.

'Yes. There was a recent breach in The Thorn's surveillance network so they were directed to us to figure out the cause of the incident. Mysteriously, there were two men found on The Thorn's top platform during the discovery of the incident however there were no recorded footage showing what actually happened.' Shirai retrieved her own cup of tea from the table before taking a small sip from it. 'We suspected that it may be the Skill-Outs' doing.'

'Uwahh! I just got an email from Nunotaba-san!' The young girl with flowers sprouting from her head, Uiharu Kazari, leapt up from her chair.

'Ehhhh?!'

'Wh-what does it say?'

'Does it say anything about Frebri and Janie's condition?'

The three girls got up from where they were sitting and rushed over towards Uiharu.

A small window popped up in one computer screens showing an email from Nunotaba Shinobu.

'U-umm... it says here that there was great progress in their readjustments and they'll soon be in perfect condition. And... ehhh?!' Uiharu was about to read the remaining part of the email before being cut off my Saten.

'She's returning to Academy City!' Saten exclaimed with great excitement.

'Is she bringing Febri and Janie with her?!'

'Sadly no, she will only be here for only a few days to retrieve some data she had left so Febri and Janie will remain in the overseas facility, which they are currently staying in.' Uiharu read through the rest of the message.

'Ohh... then I guess she'll be too busy to hang out with us. Such a shame, I really wanted to go shopping with her some time...' Misaka remembered how disappointing it was that Nunotaba Shinobu had to leave Academy City in order to treat the Chemicaloids, Febri and Janie, just as they had became friends.

In that instant, a dark aura loomed over her. An aura of jealousy.

'O-o-onee-sama! If you just wanted to go shopping, then I am already enough to satisfy your needs! Your dear herald, Shirai Kuroko, will do anything for you!' Suddenly, Shirai Kuroko latched onto her Onee-sama's body from behind.

Uiharu and Saten made an awkward smile after seeing the usual act of the two Tokiwadai students.

'Kuroko! Don't we already shop together?!' Misaka tried to shake off her twin-tailed kouhai.

Kuroko's body swung from side to side, following the erratic movement coming from the brown-haired girl. Her hands crept up slowly on Misaka's uniform, reaching the middle schooler's chest area. Her lecherous personality showed itself.

'THAT'S ENOUGH!'

Suddenly, a big burst of electricity came out from the Level 5's body.

The powerful shock electrocuted Kuroko, leaving her laying down on the floor seemingly fried to a crisp.

* * *

><p>'Hisako-san got really mad at me earlier for coming to the office even though I'm already fit enough to work.' Tatemiya Haruka took a sip from her glass of pineapple juice. A large white bandage can be seen underneath her bangs. ' I'm so sorry for calling you guys all of a sudden after rejecting your offer to hang out.'<p>

A brown paper bag carrying a brand new phone lay on top of the table beside her.

'Oh it's alright. It's not like we have anything else to do today anyway.' Saki, the girl sitting across Haruka, took a bite from her expensive looking vanilla short cake.

'You really shouldn't push yourself, Haruka-san.' Aki who was seating beside Saki, drank the last bit of her ice tea. The girl had previously undergone extreme mental stress caused by the usage of her power called Deja vu in order to save her friend along with Atsuchi Tomoya and Takayama Akito. Her peaceful life had been reclaimed so she had no more reason to use her powers.

The three high school girls were currently in a family restaurant somewhere around the seventh school district.

They were part of the few high-levelled espers students in their school, being either Level 3 or 4. Haruka was currently the only Level 4 in her entire school.

They had previously gone out to shop for Haruka's new phone since her previous one had been blown to bits by a bullet during her fight with REBEL.

It was already after school in Academy City.

'Speaking of which, Tatemiya-san, how did you end up in that facility and be captured by a bunch of worthless Level 0's?' the brown-haired ojou-sama said in a cold tone. She couldn't believed that her rival had been defeated by a mere group of anti-espers.

'W-well a lot of stuff happened. There was this old lady and a kid looking for this boy with white hair and then you know~' The pony-tailed Level 4 esper made a sheepish smile. She couldn't remember all the events that happened that day especially her last fight where she got knocked out by some unknown person using a weird device that caused her powers to stop. 'Anyway thanks for rescuing me, Aki-chan.'

'I didn't really do anything though. You should thank our friends instead.' Aki fidgeting in her seat.

'I heard that delinquent Akito got shot while rescuing Tatemiya-san. I guess he was good for something after all.' Saki continued to consume the short cake as she said that.

'He has always been reliable! Just you wait, he'll come out bursting to the top. And when he does, I'll bring him down!' Haruka raised her fist into the air. Her brilliant aura poured out as if like a phoenix that was reborn.

Aki and Saki wondered why she was getting so worked up all by herself but shrugged it off.

The three finished their lunch before parting ways.

* * *

><p>'Urghh... that last gig really didn't turn out so well.' Hamazura Shiage looked at his phone to check for the current time. 'I guess I wasn't fit enough to be a leader unlike Komaba-san.'<p>

The delinquent had previously been involved in a certain incident involving Misaka Misuzu. Soon afterwards, he had ran away from his former Skill-Out associates in order to not get reprimanded and be beaten up because of his recent failure.

He currently stood in a dark alley beside a car that has been stolen from somewhere. He was wearing a messy brown hoodie and a baggy pair of jeans.

Night had just fallen in Academy City. It was at this time where the dark side does most of its activities.

Grunts prepared to transition from their normal everyday jobs into ones which involved providing transportation, disposing a corpse or any other ridiculous task given to them by their superiors.

Smugglers bring out there best items to their usual customers.

Important people suddenly disappearing because of some valuable information they might have in them.

Hamazura had just demoted himself from a leader of 100 Skill-Outs into a grunt that fetches cars in order to provide transport to the ones he works for.

Suddenly, his phone's screen lit up. A large envelope-like icon popped up in the screen indicating that he has received a text a message.

_Oh it's here. This is my first job in this organization so I better not screw this up._

Hamazura looked at the sender's name which seemed to belong to a girl.

Mugino Shizuri.

The message read that Hamazura must come to her current location immediately or else ITEM will come up with a painful punishment game for him involving nutcrackers.

Hamazura tilted his head a bit in his confusion before realizing what the message meant about using nutcrackers in a _painful _punishment game.

'Shit! Is this some sort of joke?!'

Without another word, Hamazura quickly got into the stolen car and drove to the coordinates mentioned in the message, not wanting any part of the punishment game the girl had in mind.

* * *

><p><em>This move might decide it all.<em>

Sweat dropped down from Takayama Akito's face.

His hair was dyed blonde and was very unkempt. His right leg was visibly wrapped up in bandages.

He was a Level 0 who had no special powers and was younger than most high school students in his year.

_Come on... make your move.._

In front of him was a high school student who also had blonde hair but a slightly different shade. He was wearing sunglasses indoors for some reason.

Tsuchimikado Motoharu waited for several seconds, sizing up his opponent, before making his move.

A delighted expression came out of him as he put down his hand on the square table beside him.

_Okay. Now it's my turn._

Akito nervously turned towards the other boy to his right who had black spiky hair and was just as nervous as Akito.

The young boy pondered for a bit before deciding on his next course of action.

The tension rose with each passing second.

Akito stretched his hand out before grabbing the thing in the other boy's hand.

'YOSHAAAAAAA!' The young blonde haired delinquent let out a victory cry just as he slammed his cards down onto the table, right after seeing the content of the card he just pulled out from the other boy.

'Fukou da...' Kamijou Touma muttered as he depressingly showed the Joker in his hand.

It was a Friday night in Academy City.

The three boys were currently inside Akito's dorm room, playing old maid.

The newly formed "Neighbours' association of Level 0's who rely on a kid to help with their homework" decided to play a cruel game instead of just relying on Akito with their homework.

Their bets, in the form of paper containing difficult test problems and homework, have been placed on the table in the middle of the room.

The loser would have to do all the homework laid out in the table.

'You're really bad at this, Kami-yan~' Tsuchimikado made a wide grin as he looked at the loser of the game.

Akito silently pushed up his imaginary glasses as he thought: _Just as planned._

The young boy sat on top of his bed while Tsuchimikado and Kamijou sat on the floor on both sides of the square table.

'Th-this game is getting out of hand! There's no way I'll be able to do all this in just a weekend!' Kamijou Touma protested at the unreasonable rules of the game.

'Don't worry Kamijou, I don't actually plan on giving my homework to you for fear of lowering my grades even more.' Akito looked at the poor boy who had terrible luck.

Despite being a delinquent, Akito can still pass a subject without any difficulty. If he had gotten serious, he would be able to instantly reach the number one spot in his school. Of course this doesn't change the fact that he was still a Level 0 and does not hold much relevance in Academy City's research.

They go to different schools however their curriculum was very similar.

'Really?! Well then -Wait a minute! Doesn't that mean you don't trust me at all?! I know I'm not that good with homework but I could at least achieve a satisfactory grade!'

'Yahh~ If it was a cute little maid with a huge rack, I would definitely do her homework and hide it from her so we can share more intimate meetings~'

'Why would a cute maid ever ask you to do her homework to begin with?! You're a bad example for Akito-kun!'

'I'm not a kid anymore, Kamijou!'

'Are you sure Takayama-chi? Are you perhaps mature enough to understand the magnificent world of maids?' Tsuchimikado made a dead serious expression as he fixed up his sunglasses.

'You're fetishes have nothing to do with being mature at all! Akito-kun is nothing like you at all!'

'You say that Kami-yan, but don't you also have this thing for older dorm onee-san's?!'

'Th-that's beside the point here!'

'A-actually...'

Akito quietly muttered, turning away from the two.

Tsuchimikado and Kamijou fell silent as they looked on over the young boy sitting on the bed, waiting for him to continue.

'I like girl's with bangs that cover most of their foreheads.'

Touma grew pale as he realized that his mental image of the pure boy was mistaken while Tsuchimikado gave a wide grin as he wrapped his arm around the boy's shoulder.

'I knew you were one of us, Takayama-chi! You're not like this Kami-yan who runs away from the truth.'

The three boys continued with their games until they got tired and withdrew for the night.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

In the cycle where Akito and Tomoya died, Kakine was not aware that Haruka was in the building so he just launched his attack without much thought.

Tatemiya Haruka has already been identified to the public as 'rescued' so Kakine will not risk kidnapping Haruka in order to avoid drawing needless attention.

Maya is an OC from A Certain Defective Sister.


	9. Worth

**Akito: "You damn author! Just because I'm part of your personality's darkness doesn't mean that you can trap me in an invisible maze of hypnotism and shoot my leg! And why does Tsuyuri-san have such a cool power when I'm the main protagonist here?!"**

**soul: "Whoa~ Chill out kiddo. You're doing just fine~ Giving you powers would be way too boring so just make do with what you have."**

**Akito: "I even died in an alternate timeline for christ sake!"**

**soul: "It's fine! That's nothing compared to when Touma was stuck in the multiverses made to specifically torture him. Just keep this up kiddo and you will eventually reach his level."**

**Akito: "Tsk..."**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 9 – Worthx0<strong>

* * *

><p>"Hmm.. Looks like this area is clear. Nothing suspicious anywhere." Shirai Kuroko looked around the vicinity of the public square.<p>

The Level 4 Teleporter was patrolling around the event area of The Science and Liberal Arts Exhibition as a member of Judgment. The event was being held for 3 days, throughout a large portion of a certain school district. Other Judgment members were surveying other parts of the exhibition.

She was currently standing in the middle of a public square, surrounded by dozens of people eating their lunch on the small outdoor food court.

The whole district was in a festive mood. There were lots of people going through all the attractions in the area.

There was an open air theater at one corner of the grounds where various plays and musicals were being performed.

There were conferences held in complexes surrounding the public square, giving symposiums and presentations about current scientific discoveries. Researchers took this chance to present their new findings to the scientific community and to attract more individuals who are willing to fund their research.

Several of Academy City's latest 3-dimensional holographic technology were used to make images of cartoon-like mascots, such as a famous chibi green frog character, around the food stalls of the eating area. Circular devices the size of hockey pucks were stuck on metal stands, emitting long multicolored lights around itself to generate a holographic effect. Lots of children flocked around these light-generated mascots.

"These kinds of devices should work more effectively at night time." Shirai noticing the transparency of the images due to being exposed to the sun. "They should've just kept them indoors instead."

The holographic images themselves were part of the exhibition, one of the main attractions of the 12th Mechatronics Research Center.

"Uiharu, I'm going to take a break for while so I'll be hanging up." Shirai spoke to the communication device attached to her ear before taking it off.

The area was very crowded and all tables were occupied so she decided to move to the nearest family restaurant she could find.

She moved out of the food court and crossed the nearby street whereby she found a branch of Joseph's.

"My apologies dear customer, we don't have any empty tables at the moment so do you mind sharing one with another customer?" A young waitress politely greeted Shirai.

The interior of the restaurant was filled with people attending the exhibition.

"I don't mind." Shirai replied without much thought.

"Then please follow me."

The waitress led Shirai to a distant table being occupied by only a single person.

"Huh?" Shirai stopped in her tracks after seeing the person at one of the table's seat.

"Eh?" The girl known as Musujime Awaki noticed Shirai and gave a similar expression.

"Ara? It's seems you two know each other. Then, dear customer."

"W-wait a minute!" Shirai tried to get the waitress' attention however the latter hurriedly went off to attend to the other customers of the family restaurant.

_How is this happening?!_

Shirai now sat in front of the Level 4 Move Point. The latter closed her eyes in deep thought , not minding the awkward situation at all.

The two pig-tailed girls had fought each other in the past to secure the Remnant of the Tree Diagram super-computer. They were both heavily injured in the process.

They were in bad terms. At least that is what Shirai Kuroko had thought.

"It has been a while, Shirai-san. How are things at work?"

"..."

"What's the matter, Shirai-san?" Musujime said with one eye out.

"Don't ask me how I'm feeling as if we're friends! We're enemies remember?!" Shirai scratched her head in frustration.

"Perhaps. But that doesn't mean we can't act civilized in public can we? You're in Judgment after all so it's common sense to avoid a fight inside a family restaurant full of people. It was only a job after all, it's not like I hated you for being in the way. You had to do what you had to do as a member of Judgment. Plus that conflict has been resolved already." Musujime shrugged.

The Level 4 Move Point kept her cool head in front of her former nemesis.

"W-What are you trying to say here?! Are you saying that you like me or something?!" A cross-shaped vein appeared on Shirai's forehead.

"Well..."

Before Musujime could finish what she was about to say, a young waitress different from the one before appeared before the table, carrying a pink-colored ice cream soda with two red straws intertwining with each other to form a heart shape.

"Congratulations dear customers! This table has been picked for our special limited time-only special event. You will receive this delicious strawberry-flavored ice cream float for free!" The young waitress energetically announced to Musujime and Shirai.

The waitress enthusiastically placed the sweet beverage on the table and briefly winked at the two pig-tailed girls with a smile that says: _This should help progress things._

"Well I guess it's bottoms up, honey." Musujime unaffected by the turn of events, took the red straw in front of her and gulped down the beverage.

"I AM ONEE-SAMA'S AND ONEE-SAMA'S ALONE!"

In the end, Shirai decided to drink the strawberry-flavored ice cream float as well, planning to annoy Musujime by consuming all of it however it didn't seem that Musujime minded at all.

The two continued their brief date inside the family restaurant.

* * *

><p>"Hmm... so this game will come out this December in Academy City huh. I'm more of an RPG fan but this game received a lot of hype and was in the top recommends for this year so maybe a change of pace would be nice?" Akito quietly muttered as he read through the small article of the gaming magazine in his hand. "But the comments from the message boards aren't reliable enough. In the end I have to try it out for myself to know if it's any good or not..."<p>

The young boy rested on top of his bed in one corner of the room. His right leg was wrapped up in bandages underneath his jeans due to an injury he received from being shot by a gun however he was fine enough to walk as long as it was short distances.

The room did not have much decorations apart from the PC in one corner of the room and several orange cushions he recently bought.

"Wow! This tea is impressive! It's nothing like what I have had before." Atsuchi Tomoya, a boy wearing black framed glasses, brown trousers and a buttoned up white long-sleeve shirt underneath a green checkered vest, widened his eyes in amazement as he stared down inside the white pearlescent tea cup in his hands. He sat on a cushion at one side of the square table.

"It really is! Can you teach me how to make this, Maika-chan?" Tsuyuri Aki sat on another cushion on the opposite end of the table facing Tomoya. She wore light-blue dress and a white cardigan.

"No problem. Let this humble maid in training teach you her little secret in making delicious tea~" A young girl wearing a dark blue and white maid outfit cheerfully replied. The tea which she served was a special unique style only taught by the Ryouran Maid School.

Tsuchimikado Maika approached the table while holding a platter of desserts which she prepared in the kitchen.

"Is that a short cake I'm seeing?!" Index, a nun wearing a white habit with golden designs, hurriedly grabbed one of the white plates holding a cream covered short cake. She sat on another orange cushion on a different side of the table.

"..."

The magazine fell on top of Akito's face. He could not concentrate on the important, and possibly life-changing decision he was about to make.

The four were casually eating lunch inside Akito's dorm room for some reason.

"So Index-san, you said that you are currently living with Touma-san in the room above. Are you her relative? You two don't look alike." Tomoya turned toface the young nun.

"Nope! Touma just takes care of me. That's all~!" Index energetically replied the instant she finished munching down the short cake.

"Ehh? So he's your guardian or something?"

"What's wrong Akito-kun?" Aki turned towards the boy with the troubled expression.

"I-it's nothing..." Akito put the magazine aside.

_How did my room become a cafe all of a sudden..._

He had missed quite a few days school thanks to his injury so Kamijou Touma asked Tsuchimikado Maika and Index to look after the poor young boy until he recovered since he lived alone.

Soon afterwards, Tomoya and Aki came to visit the young boy and then they found themselves in the current situation they were in.

_I'm not used to having so many people around..._

The young boy usually spent his whole day alone in front of the computer.

"Hm? Where are you going blondie?" Index noticed the young boy got up from his bed and moved towards his closet. The other three turned their attention to Akito as well.

"J-just going to buy some stuff I forgot." Akito said with a sheepish smile as he retrieved a plain white hoodie with a black X-mark design on the left chest area and putting it on over his blue shirt before heading towards the entrance of the room. He didn't lie though. He really forgot to buy a replacement phone for the one he broke during his fight.

"Shall I come with you?" Tomoya said looking concerned.

"Ahh.. no it's fine, megane. I won't be too far. I'm fully healed now anyway." The young boy hurriedly left the room.

* * *

><p>"Ahh~ So this is Academy City. It's completely different than the rest of Japan." A blonde woman wearing a feathered hat with a large circular rim and an expensive-looking dress, stood in the in front of the open theater of a public square.<p>

Her phone suddenly vibrated from within her crocodile-skinned purse.

"Hello? Yes Peter, I'm already here in the Science and Liberal Arts Exhibition. Nothing catches my eye yet however I do see some promising children on the stage." Susan Fairchild talked on her phone as she watched the performance on the stage of the open air theater.

The audience was deeply moved by the passionate performance of the student actors on stage.

She was currently scouting for potential talents to take back to America.

"Academy City is really interesting. It's the first time I've seen robots in broad daylight though I've yet to encounter those people they called espers."

Suddenly a girl absentmindedly bumped into her from behind.

The girl looked to be around 16 years old, had short ginger colored hair and sky blue eyes. She wore a loose body suit of pure white and made up of a certain synthetic fiber, similar to a straight jacket. Three black belts dangled from her sleeves and the sides of the thigh area of the body suit.

"Ah. Sorry, my calculation pattern fluctuated just now." The girl said with a blank expression, not even facing the woman she just bumped into.

"My~ I've been discovered by my fans already! Even in Academy City I'm still quite famous. Well I did star in multiple award winning S-Rated movies after all. Hold on I'm going to give you something special." Susan Fairchild rummaged around her purse. She took out a brown paper napkin she got from the airport and signed it with her autograph.

"... Is this one of those claim stubs you exchange for a year's worth of hamburgers?" The girl tilted her head slightly in her puzzlement as she received the autographed napkin.

"Huh?" Susan did not expect such a dry reaction from the girl. She was sure that her Japanese was good enough to hold a conversation so it was impossible that the girl misheard her.

"Are you not Japanese?" The blonde adult woman spoke in English this time.

"Hmm... I cannot see the expiration date anywhere..." The girl inspected the napkin closely as if there was a hidden message on it, completely ignoring the blonde woman that gave it to her.

"E-excuse me girlie, d-do you even know who I am?!" Susan spoke in Japanese again since that was what the girl was using.

A cross-shaped vein appeared on the blonde actress' cheek. She was reaching her limit. This was the first time in her career as a movie star that someone treated her this coldly.

"I hope it'll be cheeseburgers. I hear they are the best variant among all of the kingdom of burgers. My conquest will start from here~" The ginger haired girl turned around and moved onwards to her next destination.

"W-wait just a minute here girlie! No one ever dares to treats me like this!"

Suddenly a group of men wearing black suits appeared from the distance, across the street. They were heading towards the two females. Their target was not the famous actress but the young girl.

"..."

The young girl's expression changed to a serious one after noticing the men heading straight for her. She dropped the napkin suddenly and ran towards a certain direction away from the men.

"Is this how Academy City treat people from outside?!"

The woman's voice trailed off as the mysterious girl rushed out of the open-air theater.

* * *

><p>"Let's see..." Takayama Akito stared down at the display case containing many different kinds of phones.<p>

He was inside a store which sells your usual everyday gadgets such as smart phones, computer parts and accessories, and laptops.

The stores in Academy City did not particularly sell super high-tech phones that have specs that can surpass an average desktop machine. They were normal ones which you can even buy outside of Academy City.

"This one is way too expensive and doesn't have the right clock frequency I'm looking for. This one doesn't have enough memory. This one is too fragile. This one... I don't even understand why this thing exist in the first place." The young boy looked at each of the phones on display.

He usually kept a secondary phone with him in order to gather information around his surroundings since Academy City was such a large place and getting lost or bumping into trouble is very common. It was convenient that Academy City had lots of security cameras and a diverse network of information which anyone can exploit.

He had a specific criteria for choosing his secondary phone. Utility and practicality comes first among others. He did not bother with any additional features as long the phone has enough hardware specifications to decrypt a standard encryption scheme.

_Ahh... I need some coffee in my system so I'll just pick these two then and hurry back. Maika probably makes good coffee as well..._

Akito chose two different phones from the display and paid for them at the counter.

The two phones had distinct qualities of their own. One had high connection capabilities, able to search a large radius for a wireless connection and the other had the latest microprocessor installed, able to finish thousands of processes per minute.

He put the two band new phones into his pocket before casually walking out of the store and onto the street heading towards District 7.

"...There's so many people around. Guess it's the weekend after all."

The young boy looked around the area. There were people heading towards the public square a certain distance from where he was standing.

"Well wha-"

Suddenly, something big like a steamroller, knocked him out of balance. The boy fell to the ground consequently.

"Oww! What the hell?" Akito turned towards the source of the impact.

"Sorry. I'm kind of in a hurry. Here..."

Without warning, a mysterious girl with short ginger colored hair and wearing an unusual outfit picked up Akito, bridal-style, and ran away with him, kidnapping the confused young boy.

"W-waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait!" Akito's voice trailed off into the distance.

* * *

><p>"It seems my running ability was too much for them so I'm safe for now." The mysterious girl turned towards the direction she came from.<p>

They were now extremely far away from the Science and Liberal Arts Exhibition area.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing?! Put me down already, you kidnapper!" Akito still being held in the girls arms, clueless of what is going on.

"Ah is this one of those situations where I must treat you to something as an apology?" The girl said with a blank expression.

"Huh?"

The girl walked a bit more before stopping in front of an open cafe.

"What are you doing?"

The girl put Akito down on one of the seats before sitting on the opposite seat in front of him.

The turn of events was too fast for the young boy to keep up.

"Fine. Whatever. Just do whatever you want~" Aktio sighed, admitting his defeat as he waved his hand around like a white flag.

"I'm truly sorry. I had to get away from that area as soon as possible so I picked you up without thinking. Ah I'm now currently in the situation where I apologized to you." The girl let out an embarrassed smile.

"W-well if that's how it was then I guess it couldn't be helped." Akito blushed. He realized how beautiful the girl was despite wearing such awkward clothes.

The girl looked suspicious however she didn't seem like a bad person. In fact, she looks just like one of the main heroines in Akito's favorite RPG game, Stella-san, is what Akito thought.

_What's with this situation?!_

"Athena." The mysterious girl said plainly.

"What?"

"That is what I identify myself."

"..."

Akito furrowed his eyebrows a bit after hearing those words.

A waitress came up to them and took their orders. Athena ordered black tea and a muffin while Akito only ordered an espresso.

"That's a weird name. Are you from outside Academy City?" Akito took a sip from his cup of freshly brewed espresso. The flavor was enough to make him go wide-eyed.

"No. I've been living here as far as I could remember." Athena said gleefully while she munched down on her delicious muffin.

"So you are a student then? What school?" The young boy couldn't help but fire question after question at the mysterious girl, trying to satisfy his curiosity.

"I'm homeschooled. Umm..?"

"Takayama Akito."

_Is Athena some kind of code name?_

"My teachers told me that my curriculum is sort of special though, Takayama-san."

"Is that so? So you're already Level 3 or something?" Akito didn't mind the topic of levels now unlike before. He was recently preoccupied by all the people coming into his room to play card games or have snacks so he hasn't thought much about esper powers for a while.

"Nope. I'm still Level 0."

"Pfft." A bit of coffee spilled out of Akito's lips. "Oi oi. I thought your curriculum was special?"

"It is. That's why I'm doing my best!" Athena took a sip from her black tea. "How about you Takayama-san?"

"I just go to a normal school. I'm not really interested in those things anymore."

"Why is that?" Athena tilted her head slightly in puzzlement.

"In the past, I did a lot of things in order to progress my level. I even researched other people's powers and Personal Reality. I was so frustrated about everyone being above me even those people who do not even deserve their power in the first place." Akito said with a slightly melancholic tone.

"People who do not deserve their power?"

"Espers who abuse their powers. Academy City is so irresponsible that it willingly gives out dangerous powers to children." Akito practically spat out those words before pausing a bit to recall the events that transpired recently. "However, for some reason, I was also saved by espers. In the end, I thought that protecting those freeloaders occupying my room is far more important than being concerned about developing my own power."

"I see..." Athena took a another sip from her black tea. She elegantly brushed the hair over her left ear. "But Takayama-san, those people who do not deserve their power, are you not also one of them?"

"Huh?" Akito abruptly put down his cup.

"Did you not undergo the Power Development Curriculum because you were engrossed with the idea of obtaining a power of your own, like a child wanting a brand new toy, and doing all sorts of things with that power for your personal enjoyment?"

"..."

"Is someone as immature as that and directing his own jealousy on others, worthy of gaining special powers?"

Those words stabbed at Akito's heart. It was true that before he moved to Academy City, he was only obsessed with obtaining esper powers and not what he would do with it afterwards. And he also was terribly envious of other people's powers.

"However, I think you should not fret too much on 'who is worthy of powers or not' or whether what Academy City is doing is just or not." Athena interjected before Akito could think any further.

"What?"

"Academy City makes espers just like the ones that saved you. Just as there are espers who use their powers to do evil deeds, there are those who use them for good. Could you say that what Academy City is doing is bad? You can't. The world is not made up of just black and white. How things are discerned depends on which angle you look at them from." Athena took a sip of tea before continuing. "Therefore you cannot tell for certain if someone is deserving of their power from just one angle or from one instance where they are using their powers for a specific purpose, people change after all so they may begin as 'unworthy' of their powers but there is also a possibility that they may save lives and other good deeds in the future."

Akito continued to divulge the stream of knowledge from Athena. He was certain that he had come across these ideas before.

"Just like Schrodinger's paradox huh? If one has the means during a scenario where he is isolated, he could both be good and evil until someone observes their actions. Like Academy City who creates good and evil espers." Akito stated plainly.

"Yes. I suppose it is something like that, though a philosophical analogy is more appropriate to use here since things like Academy City is far different from scientific theories like Schrodinger's paradox which do not have relation to philosophical ideologies like being good or evil. Remember that next time Takayama-san."

"I see now..." Akito finishing his espresso, completely lost in thought.

"By the way, shishou." Athena sounding more serious.

"Why am I a teacher all of a sudden when you are the one teaching me all these things?"

"You gave me some precious insight just now so I thought it would be fitting. Anyway, this thing that I'm about to tell you is very important so listen up."

"Huh?" Akito gulped after hearing those words.

_What else is she about to tell me?!_

"You see..."

"Yeah?"

"I do not have money on me so you will have to pay the bill."

"..."

* * *

><p>"Akito-kun sure is taking his time." The bespectacled class representative looked at his wristwatch.<p>

"Sorry Tomoya-kun, I really need to head back now. Index-chan, Maika-chan, bye bye~" Aki bid farewell to the two.

"Sure sure! Next time, I'll teach you other techniques of a maid." Maika was cleaning up all the used plates and tea cups.

"Come play again next time, alright?!" Index waved good bye to Aki. "I'll introduce you to my friend, Hyouka!"

"Ahh! Wait for me Aki-chan! I'll walk you home!" Tomoya briskly tried to catch up to the girl

* * *

><p>"Oi! Are you done yet?! This is really embarrassing!" Akito directed his shout at the changing room behind him, slightly flushed from all the stares he is getting.<p>

The two were currently in the women's section of a department store close to District 7.

"In just a second."

"That suit you were wearing attracts too much attention so choose something normal!"

The curtains of the changing room suddenly sprang open.

"Oh good you're finally do- Bsdjhfft!" The young blonde haired boy made a sound that was out of this world.

"I think this C-sized one is still not enough. Wait a minute I'm going to get the other one."

Athena stood tall in the middle of the changing room with only black lingerie on. Akito didn't notice from the loose straight jacket the girl wore before, but she had a very slim figure and the black lingerie accentuated the girl's white skin.

"Didn't you bring some clothes with you?! Why are you only wearing underwear?!" The young boy immediately closed the curtains to the changing room.

"Wait! Shishou! Is this not enough already? Is this not a girl's most optimized state?"

"Wait right there and don't come out you damn weirdo!"

The young boy ran around the store picking out clothes that will match the girl's sizes, of course he will end up paying for those clothes as well but it couldn't be helped.

_Ahh... I guess I don't have the luxury of buying games any time soon..._

Soon afterwards, Akito handed some clothes to Athena while turning away from the girl.

"Hmm... Are you sure about this, shishou? From my understanding, this is not a conventional style for teenage girls."

Athena was now wearing a black hoodie that was two sizes too big and had grey arrow designs, black sandals, and skinny jeans.

"It's fine! Hoodies are mankind's ultimate type of clothing. They allow you to become stylish and inconspicuous at the same time!" Akito gave an approving nod to the young girl before paying the exact amount of money at the counter.

"Is that supposed to be your unique character trait, shishou?"

"Hm? I don't know what you mean. Though I'm no longer a delinquent and there are tons of people with blonde hair, I still have other unique traits that readers don't know about."

"Shishou, please stop..."

The two left the department store before heading towards Akito's dorm in District 7.

"So what's your plan after we arrive at the dorm? You can't just hide there forever. They will eventually find us out."

"Yes I know. But I want to walk around outside for a bit longer..."

"?"

There was a hint of sadness in Athena's words just now. The young boy still didn't know why the girl was on the run so he thought that there must be some sort of complications in her home that she wanted to get away from. Either way, he decided to help her for now.

The two were currently walking down the street. The amount of people gradually decreased as they moved forward.

It was already dusk now in Academy City.

"W-well, let's just talk about it once we reach the dorm."

"Ah is this one of those opportunities that boys undergoing puberty dream of?"

"I don't know what you are talking about but you are completely and utterly wrong."

They turned towards the big alleyway to their left.

Akito suddenly grabbed Athena's arm, completely stopping her.

"What's wrong shishou?"

"..."

A petite girl with short brown hair and wearing a pink sweater dress which stops above her thighs, stood in the middle of the alley, blocking them from reaching the other end.

The girl smiled innocently at them.

"There's something off with that girl." Akito quietly muttered.

He couldn't quite point his finger on it but there was something out of place with the girl, something different from Athena who was naturally out of place.

Something abnormally dark like Shin.

The sensation was a combination of fear and intimidation.

Darkness continued to swallow the alleyway.

"Yes! I super found you first! Now I will surely get the super bonus pay~" The girl cheerfully said.

"Who are you?" Akito took out his two phones, turning them on immediately to search for any security or cleaning robot in the area. He instantly typed in a code on the native editor of the phone with the advanced microprocessor and sending the code to the external compiler in his dorm room's PC to process his program for taking control of a security robot. The phone was newly bought so he hasn't prepared them yet.

"I did not expect a bystander would be in the way. This is super annoying..." The girl referring to Akito.

"I repeat. Who are you?" Akito still waiting for the phone to detect possible resources in the area.

"There's super no need for you to know..."

The small girl suddenly ran towards Akito at full speed.

Akito pushed Athena away before the small girl could launch her attack on him.

"!?"

The girl aimed a blow towards Akito's face but the boy evaded it completely.

It must have been because he fought a strong fighter like Shin that he was able to react faster in evading attacks is what he thought.

_Tsk... I need to delay her until I find something on my phone._

Akito quickly hid the two phones into his pockets and jumped backwards away from the girl before grabbing the steel pipe on the ground. His instincts told him that any normal way of fighting was useless against these types of people.

"Don't fuck with me!" Akito swung the steel pipe on the girl's right shoulder. It may have been cruel but he was certain that she was one of those people affiliated with an organization just like Shin.

Akito closed his eyes the instant the pipe made contact with the girl's body.

There was a repulsive sound as he thrust the pipe downwards.

"What the hell?!"

The pipe was completely bent in a right angle along the girl's body however the girl was unharmed.

"My ability is known as Offense Armor. I create a thin barrier of compressed nitrogen around my entire body which stops things like bullets from hitting me. Super awesome isn't it?"

The Level 0 let go of the steel pipe and skipped backwards to put some distance in between them while the girl just stood there calmly watching the boy.

Akito was up against Kinuhata Saiai of ITEM. A Level 0 against a Level 4.

"Judging from the way you handled that steel pipe, you must be a super lame Level 0. This will super simplify things."

_This is bad. I'm guessing that ability can block any normal attack. A strong enough force may be able to knock her away due to her size but I don't have anything like that._

The Level 0 continued to think up of a plan in the midst of the battle, still keeping his eyes on the ridiculously strong esper.

"It's best if you just super give up already."

"Like hell I would!"

Suddenly, a beeping sound rang throughout the alley.

The sound came from the phone which was searching for possible resources for him inside his pocket.

He found one.

The boy hurriedly put it on display and saw the location of the robot.

"It's... right here...?"

In that instant, an explosive noise resounded in the alley.

"Uwaaah!"

Kinuhata Saiai, the Level 4 Offense Armor, was hit from behind by a miniature tank buster missile. Her body flung upwards passed Akito due to the massive impact of the explosion.

Akito turned towards the source of the missile.

"W-what?!"

It was Athena.

* * *

><p>Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou were inside a stolen car, monitoring the situation of each ITEM member from the radio channels.<p>

The car was currently parked besides a restaurant in a certain district not too far away from the other members of ITEM.

"Hamazura."

Takitsubo turned towards the Level 0 sitting on the driver's seat.

"I know. I'm contacting Mugino now to inform her that the target came in contact with Kinuhata."

"That's not what I'm about to say." Takitsubo replied monotonously "Kinuhata fought an esper who was protecting the target. We should hurry there so I could use my ability to record his AIM."

"Oh right! Getting leads on our target takes top priority I guess." the grunt fumbled as he tried grabbing the car keys before starting the car's engine.

The two drove off to the location of the alley where Kinuhata Saiai fought.

* * *

><p>"Let's take a quick break." Akito panted as Athena dragged him by the arm.<p>

They were now on a big metallic bridge that led to District 7. Underneath the bridge was a stream of water that flowed towards the outside of Academy City. The bight moon reflected on the water's surface.

Akito originally rushed over to Athena first in the dark alley in order to get away from the Level 4 but their difference in physical abilities was apparent when the humanoid robot eventually overtook the human being.

"Are you not afraid...?" Athena said with a slightly nervous tone.

"That you are an android? Well we are in Academy City after all so I was kind of expecting that I would come across one someday." Akito smiled at his partner in crime. "I admit it was cool that a missile came out of your arm. Do you have any other weaponry stored inside your body or a jet pack maybe? By the way, how did you digest all that food from before?"

"..."

"What? Why are you so quiet suddenly? Where did all that machinegun-talking from before disappeared to?"

Athena walked in front of the boy before giving him a firm hug.

"W-what? What's the matter with you all of a sudden?!" Akito blushed furiously. His face was just above Athena's chests. He could a smell a pleasant aroma over the black hoodie she wore.

Despite being an android, she gave out a warmth just like any human being.

"I am glad that I was able to leave the research lab so I could meet you, shishou." Athena said softly, relieved that the boy was not disturbed by the girl's peculiar condition. "To tell you the truth, I did not lie about being homeschooled or being an esper either. The researchers were only doing an experiment to see if an advanced AI is capable of becoming esper so I was tutored under the Power Development Curriculum."

Akito listened to the girl's story intently without letting go of the her.

"But I realized that there was a world outside that I was missing so I decided to escape from the facility. I feel relieved now that I'm here with you."

"Well, we're not out of the woods yet. That girl from before had a power that can block any physical attack so I doubt that missile took her out for good. But I'll be ready when I face her next time." Akito tried to cheer the girl up but it had the opposite effect.

"Shishou... Doesn't that mean that you are actually looking forward to seeing her again? Is it because you two seem to be close in age?! Am I not good enough for you?!"

"O-oi! What kind of misunderstanding are you brewing up-"

Before they could react, small footsteps could be heard from the other side of the bridge behind Akito.

Noticing the appearance of the stranger, Takayama Akito quietly turned around, freeing himself from Athena's grasp before shielding her a few distance behind him.

"What is a lowly brat doing here?" A woman with tea-colored hair and wearing an expensive-looking coat said with a disgruntled expression as she glared down at the young boy.

She was Academy City's #4 Level 5, Mugino Shizuri.

The young boy stared down menacingly at the Level 5.

Akito was now facing against one of the strongest espers in Academy City.

In comparison, Athena would stand a greater chance against the Level 5 esper than the Level 0 however Takayama Akito didn't consider it.

He couldn't allow himself to cowardly hide behind the girl just because she had more combat ability than him.

It didn't matter if he was a Level 0 or not. He would lose faith in himself if he backed down now is what he thought.

He pulled out each of the two phones with both his hands but he didn't turn them on. The phones were clenched tightly within the boy's fists.

Mugino Shizuri brought out her right hand as she collected the electrons for her Meltdowner, bright green lights of energy circulated around her palm.

"So what crazy powers do you have, dipshit?"

That mocking voice did not come from the Level 5 but the young boy in front her.

Without another word, Takayama Akito recklessly charged forward towards Mugino Shizuri.

"Hmph. Damn kid-"

Just as Mugino was about to fire her Meltdowner on the young boy who was running right towards her, an odd phenomenon occurred .

The Level 5 lost control of her body as if being controlled by an invisible force.

Her whole body became stiff and her arm fell limply downwards.

She was unable to use her ability lest she accidentally fire it at herself.

"What the hell is going on?! Is this some sort of special ability?" Mugino desperately tried to regain control of her body.

A second afterwards, her body flung towards the young boy at high speed.

"Don't underestimate me, damn esper!" Akito connected his right fist with the Level 5's face.

A dull sound rang out.

The Level 5 fell to the ground a meter away from Akito.

She was now unconscious.

"H-how do you like my Vortex Point!?" Takayama Akito shouted at the unconcious Level 5, panting from all the effort he put into the attack just now.

Without further delay, he grabbed Athena's hand, leading her away from the bridge.

"Just now, was that...?" Athena called out to the boy who was leading the escape.

"Yeah. You just reached Level 2 or something higher." Akito said to Athena who was behind him, aware of what had just occurred in that fight. "But the enemy must never know or else your researchers will stop at nothing to get you."

* * *

><p><strong>I appreciate the feedback no matter how insulting it is so bring it on!<strong>

**If someone ever decides to write a OC Battle Royale collaboration in ToAru, I'll definitely pick Akito hands down as my representative.**


	10. Impossible

**Chapter 10 - Imp0ssible_**

* * *

><p>Athena stared blankly at her right hand.<p>

She was a synthetic human, an android. Her whole body was made to accurately depict a normal human being.

Cyborgs were common in Academy City due to their applications in prosthetic technology, however, Athena was not a cyborg nor was she just any ordinary robot, she was an existence that was truly one of a kind. She was not originally a human in the beginning and had her brain transferred to a robotic body like some cyborgs, she was a robotic existence ever since she first gained consciousness.

Most of her organs and other body parts were a combination of machinery and synthesized cell tissues. Certain parts were mostly mechanical, including her arms which could hold certain weapons like the miniature tank buster she used.

However, that was not the only reason why she was special.

_I have a Personal Reality now._

Athena recounts the events during their confrontation with an unknown esper on the bridge where she had awoken to a power that was originally theorized to be exclusive to human beings only.

_My power activated because I desperately wanted to protect shishou. I have to take note of this next time he is in trouble..._

Was it because she displayed human-like emotions that she was able to possess a Personal Reality?

Or was it her immense knowledge regarding the principles behind Espers and her computational capacity which were her special functions as an android?

Was she becoming more human as time passes?

She continued to question the principles behind her existence.

"Hey uh... Can I ask you something if you don't mind?" Takayama Akito looked at the android beside him nervously, trying to match her pace.

The two ran around the empty streets of Academy City at night, trying to reach Akito's dorm. They were being pursued by an organization of the dark side called ITEM.

"Yes?" The girl snapped out of her deep thoughts.

"Since you have weapons stored in your body..." Akito with a tensed voice "Does that mean the researchers who made you are going to use you as a weapon?"

"...That is correct, I have mechanisms in my body for holding various weaponry but I only had that missile equipped for I am just a prototype." Athena spoke to the boy with a calm demeanour.

"That means you will be mass-produced once they prove in their experiment that an android with an advanced AI is able to gain a Personal Reality, which we have proven already?"

"Yes. I do not know much about the details of the project however I assume they will copy all the data stored in my brain, including my Personal Reality files, and install them on the later models for production. My fate is uncertain however since the later versions will most likely surpass my specifications."

Akito's face stiffened as he heard the cruel plan laid out for Athena.

_So they're just gonna use Athena as a disposable weapon?! Dammit... Academy City is full of fucking war mongers. I knew this twisted city was rotten to the core!_

"Please do not get mad at Academy City because of this, shishou." Athena with a quiet voice, commenting as if she had just read Akito's mind.

"How can I not get mad?! Those fuckers think you're just some disposable weapon!" Akito raged, tightening his grip on the girl's hand. "You don't want that to happen to you, don't you?!"

"Yes. I do not want to hurt or kill anyone, or be destroyed as well, but... if it were not for them, I would not have been created nor got to see this world, and... I would not have met you." Athena smiled a bit. "The world isn't just made up of black and white, remember?"

"I-it's not like I was thinking of you or anything! I just don't like how Academy City just does whatever it wants." The boy avoided eye contact before taking out his phone. A map was displayed in the phone's screen, showing a single red dot."Good. It looks like they still haven't caught up to us."

"Is that dot the location of our pursuer's, shishou?"

"Yeah, I was able to access the phone of that girl from the bridge and retrieved its identification code which I used to pinpoint its coordinates in the GPS."

They turned around the corner of the lamp lit street, the dorm was now in full view.

"Still though..."Akito trying to change the subject."It's amazing that you act so human despite the fact you are operating under an AI. I suppose the researchers spent a lot of time creating it?"

"Well, from what I have heard, their approach allowed them to create my AI in under a month."

"What?! Is Academy CIty's technology really that frightening?!"

"I surmised that the process was automatized using a system consisting of a machine learning program receiving input from a TesC:sd/_adnt machi_dXywur."

"Huh?" Akito furrowed his eyebrows after hearing Athena utter some words that sounded like a speaker under heavy static noise.

They paused for a while, trying to understand what just occurred.

Athena lightly touched her neck.

"What is hapXmgoc:dks?"

Before they could react, a dark figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere, standing directly behind Akito.

"Huh!? Owww!"

"Are g:/sW_sd okay, shishX:dl/?!"

The figure grabbed hold of the boy's right wrist and shoulder, and then pulled his arm behind him into an awkward angle which prevented him from making any movements.

Akito looked behind him and saw a girl that was taller than him with dark shoulder-length hair, wide-open eyes, and wearing a dark blue trench coat. He was now forced down on his knees.

"Were you sent by Academy City's 12th Mechatronics Research Center to recover Athena?" The girl spoke in English in her first word but then switched to Japanese with the rest.

That question did not come from the young boy, but the mysterious girl holding him down.

"What are you talking about?!" Akito tried as much as he could to break free of the girl's hold but she was fairly strong.

The mysterious girl inspected Akito for a bit before stating the result of her assessment.

"Hmm... it doesn't seem that you are from the dark side. You don't have any sort of killing intent in you. I apologize." The girl released Akito.

Athena rushed over to Akito's side to aide him while keeping an eye on the mysterious girl.

The young boy slowly stood up and rubbed his wrist.

"Who the hell are you?!" He spat out, turning to face the stranger.

The girl gave a shape gaze at Akito before letting out an exasperated sigh at his helplessness.

A cross-shaped vein popped up on the boy's forehead, representing his anger.

Akito was about to retort but the girl put forth her hand to stop him before finally answering his question.

"My name is Nunotaba Shinobu."

* * *

><p>"AARRGHH! I'm gonna kill that fucking piece of shit!" Mugino Shizuri pulled at her long hair in frustration. She was currently sitting inside a stolen car near a metallic bridge.<p>

The car was currently parked on a road by the bridge as ITEM waited for the Level 5 Meltdowner to regain consciousness.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to use my ability." Takitsubo Rikou lay limply on the passenger seat of the car."The target and that boy already left my effective range when we got here."

"It's super not your fault Takitsubo-san." Kinuhata Saiai said in a carefree voice beside Mugino Shizuri before pointing at the driver of the stolen car."It's Hamazura's fault for being such a crappy driver."

"Then why don't you drive!" The delinquent behind the wheel retorted. "Anyway, where's Frenda?"

"She said that she'll scout ahead and that we shouldn't blame her if she gets to the target first." Kinuhata replied.

ITEM were currently under a mission to pursue a rogue android that escaped an Academy City facility. The usual liaison contacted Mugino Shizuri, their leader, on her phone and gave them the necessary details on the android while concealing top secret Academy City information.

"Tsk.. Hamazura!" Mugino called out the delinquent behind the wheel.

The delinquent twitched at his superior's call. He was well aware how frightening the Level 5 could be when she is in this state.

"Yeah...?"

"Send the information about the boy and his Telekinetic ability to Frenda. I vaguely remember that he called it Vortex Point or something before I lost consciousness. And also..." Mugino rubbed her temple, trying to ease her irritation. "Call the intel corps for information on his ability, and tell the rest of the subordinate organization to be on the lookout for the target and contact us when they find her."

"Right!" Hamazura pulled out his phone immediately, trying not to talk back at Mugino's bossy demands, and dialled the numbers of the subordinate group of ITEM and Frenda.

"Speaking of which, did that boy really have that super Vortex Point ability?" Kinuhata inquired to the rest of the members.

"What do you mean?" Mugino turned to face the girl beside her.

"Well in our super fight earlier, he didn't use his ability even once. He even made use of a blunt weapon instead." Kinuhata said with one eye out.

"Maybe he forgot...?" Hamazura tried to add to the conversation but Mugino gave him a sharp glare, telling him to focus on contacting those people she told him.

They took a brief moment to figure out the reasons behind the boy's unusual behaviour.

"Maybe it was..." Mugino broke the silence inside the car before a rip-like smile appeared on her face. "_Interesting.._"

The dark side made its move, slowly closing in on the young boy and the rogue android.

* * *

><p>"It seems that due to the usage of her ability, a system dump is being performed by her main program in order to refresh her files." Nunotaba Shinobu sat in front of her computer.<p>

Takayama Akito and Athena were now inside Nunotaba Shinobu's old office inside one of the temporary apartments she used during her time in Academy City as a researcher. The bright room had a very western style, with an old-looking book case beside a desktop computer on one side of the room, a big classic lamp on top a large desk on the farthest side, and a long coffee table surrounded by sofas in the middle.

"Isn't that supposed to be a good thing." Akito inquired as he rubbed around his right leg, checking for its condition. He was sitting in one of the sofas far away from the two.

"Her program is outdated and can't handle the stress from the usage of her Personal Reality." Nunotaba turned towards Athena who was sitting down on a chair beside her. A wire connected from the android's neck to her computer. "A dump would only revert her registers to their original state. It does not recognize the new directives she has gained as an esper so all esper related data will cause errors in the system and the process will loop infinitely unless a patch is applied which will recognize these new dire_c_tives."

"Uh-huh..." Akito understood most of what the girl explained however the complexity between an android and a regular robot were apparent from what he heard.

Akito got up and looked around the room. He needed something to keep himself calm especially in this tense situation.

_Huh?_

There were lots of peculiar books lined up on the shelves however there was one that especially caught his attention because it had no title in its binding.

Akito grabbed the book next to the book entitled "Gemstones". The book he held was written by Tsukuyomi Komoe. It's contents were a compilation of research regarding Level 0's and their possible role in the SYSTEM.

He read through the table of contents and then skimmed through half of the book at an amazing pace.

"This is the first time I've read detailed theories about Level 0's." Akito muttered as he read the book. "This person must have great interest in them. But she does make a good point though."

Akito went into deep thought as he took in the knowledge from the book.

_Logically speaking, if a subject in an experiment did not show its expected result, then it is most likely that a particular variable must have been overlook, assuming the experiment was free of any external interference of course. Possible reasons for the error could have been the subject's incompatibility with the experiment or the experiment itself could have been flawed. _

The young boy had researched about Personal Realities to a certain extent in the past to progress his esper level however the book he was reading contained ideas which contradicted his previous belief about Level 0's being irrelevant to Academy City's research.

_A Level 0 such as myself underwent the same Power Curriculum Program as the rest of the students in Academy City and strangely enough, there are a lot of students having trouble... Perhaps there is a greater mystery behind it all. Perhaps Level 0's are a completely different factor altogether. Just as Athena had stated before, things change depending on what perspective you take. By using that reasoning, one could say that a Level 0 is unable to learn esper abilities not because of he doesn't have the ability, but because an unknown factor in this world is preventing him from doing so..._

"Interesting, isn't it?" Nunotaba Shinobu replied at the boy's remark. "Perhaps that is the direction Academy City should be focusing on instead of ones like Project ATHENA."

"Project what... ?!" Akito looked up towards the girl and saw her casually groping Athena's chest. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Athena blushed slightly, not making any movements as she assumed that this was part of her check-up.

"Oh sorry." Shinobu withdrew her hand. "This is my first time seeing a fully operational android in real life. As a researcher, I'm absolutely astounded."

Nunotaba Shinobu's expression hardly ever changes from being serious.

Akito looked suspiciously at the genius girl before repeating his question. "What do you mean by Project ATHENA?"

Shinobu gave a brief glance at Athena, her eyes showed some sympathy to the android, before slowly turning to face the young boy. "Before I answer your question, tell me, what is your motivation for helping her? You have nothing to do with the dark side yet you are intentionally putting yourself in danger just by being near her."

"The...'dark side'?" Akito asked the girl who seemed to know a lot about the matter.

"You don't even know who you are facing up against..." Shinobu sighed before continuing. "I've met someone like you before..."

"Before, I have fought against someone who might be affiliated to this 'dark side' you are referring to so I'm not completely clueless on what is going on."

Athena stared at the two nervously. Her voice was currently undergoing erroneous bugs so she couldn't voice out her opinions.

"I guess it's pointless hiding it from you since you are already on their list."

A chill ran down his spine. He had a slight suspicion that these people from the dark side were after him but now he was completely sure based on this girl's serious expression.

Shinobu sat back down on her office chair. "... Academy City, as you may already know, is obsessed with science and technology. It keeps its public appearances neat even though its experiments are just within the boundary of human ethics, however, Academy City also takes part in activities which crosses that boundary, activities which should not be known to the public or else Academy City's image will be at risk. Activities which involve cruel human experimentation, assassination, and other criminal activity. That is the 'dark side'."

Akito silently nodded. He felt his heart beat faster after learning that his previous assumption regarding Academy City was humane compared to the real one.

"The people who are chasing you are part of that world. They are an organization from the dark side who takes direct orders from the administration. They take on missions such as protecting Academy City's darkest secrets."

"So Project ATHENA is one of those secrets?"

"Yes. But before that, prove to me that you're someone I can trust by answering my question." Shinobu stared at him coldly from her chair. "After hearing about the dark side, is your will still unchanged?"

Akito thought for a moment as he stood in the middle of the room under the bright light.

He did not have any special powers. His fighting capability was on a laughable scale compared to those on the dark side who live their lives in constant danger. He had some talent in hacking but beyond that, he was just an ordinary Level 0.

Why was he protecting the girl knowing full well that she was not even human nor did he have the power to protect her?

What did he stand to gain by protecting her?

"I have always known that there must have been some ugly truth behind this city." The boy broke the silence in the room.

"Then is this ugly truth what you had expected? Will you save yourself the trouble and withdraw from this battle?"

"No, it was deeper and more disgusting than what I had imagined however... this city doesn't belong to the darkness alone. There are also people willing to risk their lives for someone important to them."

"Are you saying that you are one of those people?" Nunotaba Shinobu tilted her head slightly as she looked down on the young boy.

"No... I'm just a dumb kid who throws a tantrum just because of his low level. However, I have learned that there are more important things than Levels or abilities." Takayama Akito stared back at the genius girl. "This is my chance to prove my worth. I don't care if you think I'm just a weak Level 0, I don't want to lose her to Academy City!"

Seeing the young boy filled with determination, Athena couldn't help but be surprised by the fact that he was willing to go so far just for a disposable machine like her.

"...I suppose it will suffice." Nunotaba Shinobu frowned. "I have been involved with a project that is vastly similar to this one. From the reports which I have stolen from the 12th Mechatronics Research Center, Project ATHENA is a plan to mass-produce disposable espers for military use. The project I previously took part in and left, involved the production of clones for a similar purpose however this project acknowledges the fact that the cultivation of clones consumes a large amount of time therefore they concluded that machines capable of psychic ability are easier to reproduce and with consistent results."

The young boy recalled Athena's earlier comment regarding the incredibly fast process of creating an advanced Artificial Intelligence, and the fact that once she was able to obtain esper abilities, the researchers only needed to copy the data from Athena's brain and install it on the later androids models.

"I returned to Academy City because the device that I have designed is being used again by the dark side."

"What do you mean?"

"The Testament machine I designed, installs information on a human's brain. However in this case, the subject receiving the input was a machine learning program embedded in Athena in order to produce a self-learning Artificial Intelligence with emotions. Also, the information recorded in the Testament and its functionality are stored within her, so I suspect she also has the ability to install information on a human's brain. You could say she is a walking Testament machine."

_Was that the reason behind her know-it-all habits? _Akito thought to himself.

"...I sent you the information I have on your pursuers. I believe they call themselves ITEM, they were also involved during the last project I dealt with."

Akito received an email on his phone which he then looked up. The phone's display showed short descriptions and pictures of the members of ITEM.

_Name: Kinuhata Saiai, Power Level: 4, Ability: Offense Armor... Name: Takitsubo Rikou, Power Level: 4, Ability: AIM Stalker... Name: Mugino Shizuri, Power Level: 5, Ability: Meltdowner... Name: Frenda Seivelun..._

_That woman from the bridge was one of the seven Level 5's in Academy City... shit..._

" We must retrieve the program code inside the facility in order for me to create a patch for her and then delete all the existing records regarding her existence. In the meantime, I will have to take the entire module responsible for her processing her powers or else the errors that are accumulating will render her unable to move." Shinobu retrieved a thumb drive and plugged it into the compture.

"You think they will stop just from that? Won't they just repeat the experiment again?"

"I believe they expended a serious amount in this project, that is why they are doing their presentations in the Science and Liberal Arts Exhibition, to gather investors for the project. So if they come out fruitless with their fund-gathering while their only prototype and data was missing, it would spell disaster for the project altogether."

"Right." Akito returned the book back to its proper place as he waited for the girl to finish her task. He checked his phone for the current whereabouts of his pursuers but it doesn't seem that they will be reaching the three anytime soon. "We'll have to keep this up until morning. I don't think ITEM will try to make a move once public there are more people around."

The three then hurriedly left the building and got into Nunotaba Shinobu's car before driving off to the 12th Mechatronics Research Center's Laboratory B in District 5.

"Oi~ Why so quiet all of a sudden~?" Akito made a wide grin as he teased the android girl beside him on the back seat of the car.

"L;s.d_ammk mss." Athena pouted after failing to express her thoughts into words. She then moved closer to the boy to mess with his hair in frustration.

Akito frantically fended off the attack.

Shinobu looked at the two from the rear view mirror. "Well, is this forbidden love I am seeing? Now I understand your current situation."

"It's not what you thi- ?!"

Athena covered the boy's mouth before pushing him down on the seat. The girl smiled while she executed her revenge on the young boy.

Akito pulled on the girl's cheeks, as he was forced down to lay on the seat.

The car took a quick and sudden turn.

"Waaaahhh! You idiot!"

The two now lay jumbled over on the seat in awkward positions.

"Please save the flirting for later, Takayama-kun." Shinobu said nonchalantly as she drove the car.

The car arrived at the street across the facility. There was an entry way for vehicles in front of the facility's main building, being blocked by a check point and a guardhouse.

It was already midnight in Academy City.

* * *

><p>"Mugino, we have information of a strange movement around the research lab of the client." Kinuhata Saiai spoke to the girl beside her after checking the information on her phone.<p>

"As I thought. Hamazura!"

"Y-yeah. I'm on it." Hamazura manipulated the wheel and headed for the location on the map.

* * *

><p>Takayama Akito, Nunotaba Shinobu and Athena infiltrated the facility grounds in the darkness of the night.<p>

Akito manipulated all the security cameras in the vicinity with his phone and set them to record the same empty scene in a loop.

They entered the facility using an ID card which Shinobu had stolen prior to their meeting.

The facility only had two floors and one basement floor which Shinobu pointed out to be their destination.

Akito continued to manipulate the security cameras as they moved along the dark empty hall way of the facility, sneaking past through security guards at every corner.

"The security here sure is tight. As expected from Academy City's research facilities." Akito connected to a security camera's live visual feed a certain distance away to scout ahead.

"Don't be careless, Takayama-kun."

They crept up slowly towards the door that will lead them to the basement floor.

Upon opening the door to the large room of the floor,

"W-what the hell?" Akito stood motionless at the sight before him.

Several life-sized figures hanged from the ceiling above their appearance was drastically similar to Athena. They wore straight-jackets which she used to wore.

They hanged motionless like a bunch of mannequins.

"It's this way." Shinobu led the group, unfazed by the eerie scene.

"So they made preparations ahead of time..." Akito looking at all the lifeless machines. "We may have to destroy these things afterwards. I'll secure our escape route through that emergency exit."

"Then I'll access the terminal for the program code. The process will take a bit of time to finish." Shinobu took out an external memory device from her trench coat and headed towards a large screen computer before turning it on.

Athena stared at the imperfect recreations.

If they manage to stop the Academy City's plan, then she will be the only living android esper in existence.

_I... I just wish to be by shishou's side. I want to walk around Academy City with him. Eat various foods, watch movies, and do all sorts of enjoyable activity...I hope we can overcome this struggle._

"Nunotaba-san!" A worried expression can be seen on the boy's face as he approached them while holding out a smart phone in his hand. "ITEM is heading towards the facility."

"I have the program but the transfer will take longer than I expected." Shinobu grew worried. She did not have her usual calm expression. "I just need a bit more time."

"Based on their displacement in the GPS, they are most likely riding a vehicle. Will you be able to retrieve the program in time?"

"Factoring in the size of the program plus the download duration, it's barely enough..."

Akito looked around the large dim lit room. He looked towards an incomplete android dangling from a black wire. "I've got a plan... But I'll need a sample of her AIM."

"Huh?" Shinobu thought for a moment, trying to figure out the boy's intention.

"... I see. I'll help you with the installation." Shinobu took out an object from her trench coat. It was not a thumb drive but a handgun. "You're gonna go out and delay them aren't you? If so, then you will have better chances with this."

Akito took the black handgun.

The cold heavy metal caused a bit of numbness in his hands. There was no time to modify it into something that can't kill.

Athena stared nervously at the young boy.

"I know what you want to say..." Akito looked up at her. "I promise this will work so trust me..."

* * *

><p>Mugino Shizuri, Kinuhata Saiai and Takitsubo Rikou were riding inside a stolen car being driven by Hamazura Shiage.<p>

The car was already past the speed limits of Academy City.

Suddenly, a small object hit the car's windshield with a large impact. A large spider crack appeared in front of them, blocking their view of the road ahead.

"Oh shit!" Hamazura lost sight of the road and steered blindly.

"Hamazura!"

"Waaah!"

The car veered off its path. Thankfully, the street was completely empty so they did not collide with another vehicle.

He slammed down on the brakes to stop the car from moving any further.

Mugino, Takitsubo and Kinuhata abruptly got out of the car and saw a girl and a blonde-haired boy holding a gun about 30 meters ahead, standing on a sidewalk on the far corner of the street.

After firing that shot, Akito quickly moved towards the nearest alley with a robot that looks just like Athena.

"That damn nuisance again! Takitsubo!" Mugino called out the name of their Level 4 AIM Stalker.

Takitsubo wordlessly took out a small case of white powder. She lightly touched it with a finger before licking the powder.

"Beginning AIM diffusion field search." Her eyes awakened from their sleepy state.

The whole process took about 7 seconds and then she stated her findings.

"Vortex Point successfully recorded." Takitsubo spoke like a machine. "...Results indicate multiple Vortex Points in 4 different locations..."

"W-what?"

"Is that even super possible?"

ITEM had given up on the assumption that the boy held the power of Vortex Point, and concluded that the android must have been the real one. So they placed the android as their target for the AIM Stalker.

"Did he have decoy transmitters prepared?!"

"What about the boy, Takitsubo-san?" Kinuhata faced the AIM Stalker.

"AIM diffusion field successfully recorded for the young boy. However..." The AIM Stalker paused for a while before continuing. "Results indicate a fluctuating field. Location will be difficult to trace."

"What should we do Mugino?!"

"...We split up. I will go after that brat. Hamazura and Takitsubo to one of the targets. Kinuhata and Frenda will go after the rest alone. And on that note, contact Frenda again and tell her the current situation."

ITEM proceeded with their plan to capture the android esper.

* * *

><p>"I hope they took the bait!" Akito ran around the dark empty streets alongside an incomplete reproduction of Athena. The android wore a white straight jacket.<p>

Suddenly, multiple beams of light shot above him. They were the Particle Waveform High-Speed Cannon, Meltdowner.

The beams hit the concrete wall of a certain building past him. A loud crash resounded in the street.

"Oh crap! Looks like the troublesome one is here. At least she's alone." The blonde-haired boy looked behind him and saw the Level 5 closing in.

Mugino fired another Meltdowner at the young boy.

Akito and the incomplete android turned towards the corner of the street to avoid the powerful beam. He heard another loud crash caused by the Meltdowner.

"Hahaha... Level 5's sure are something." A sweat drop formed on the Level 0's face. He checked the remaining ammo in his gun and saw that he had 10 shots left.

"I'm gonna kill you, you dumb fuck!" The Level 5 cried out.

Their path led them to a wide park filled with trees.

_This is good enough. _Akito thought as he turned around and fired a quick shot at Mugino Shizuri.

The Level 5 put her hand up and produced a shield made out of electrons.

The bullet disintegrated as it passed though the shield.

A rip-like smile formed on Mugino's face. "Hahaha! Do you honestly think that a gun is enough to fight me? I'm a Level 5, you damn brat!"

They were now in the inner most part of the park, inside a small forest covered with tall trees. Only the bright silvery moon served as illumination for them.

Akito who had no special powers whatsoever, a normal Level 0, now stood face to face against the impossible, the 4th ranked Level 5, one of the strongest beings in Academy City.

It was like a small mouse fighting against a vicious lion.

His chances of winning against the Level 5 in a straight out fight were utterly close to zero, about a millionths of decimal places.

"You won't know until you try!" Akito ran towards the sides, not letting his eyes off the ridiculously strong esper.

The incomplete android stood a fair distance away from them, lifelessly staring at the two.

"Don't you realize that what you are doing here is useless?"

Four orbs of energy floated around Mugino Shizuri as she stood in the middle of the open space of the forest. The orbs fired Meltdowners consecutively at the Level 0.

Akito gritted his teeth and leaped forward.

A beam hit his white hood and grazed through his right shoulder, tearing his sleeve open and causing a long wound to appear.

There were beams that passed him and struck through the trunks of several trees, cutting them in half. Their leaves rustled wildly as they fell down to the ground.

The barrage of beams continued followed by loud explosions.

Akito continued to circle around the powerful esper as he evaded however the Meltdowners gradually got closer and closer.

Oddly enough, the boy let out a small grin as he ran around trying to dodge beams left and right.

_So this is what it's like to fight with everything you got!_

He was not confident that he would win against the Level 5 and yet at the same time, he felt that his heart was free of any other thoughts, only focusing on the goal of protecting a precious friend.

The boy was not fighting in hatred against espers or Academy City.

If it had been himself in the past who was fighting against the Level 5, he would have undoubtedly ran away without a second thought. However, his current self was overwhelmingly filled with resolve.

For once, he discarded the notion of power levels in this fight.

The Level 0 carefully observed Mugino Shizuri as he ran.

After seeing a chance, he fired another shot during the split-second where the orbs were preparing to fire at him. His remaining bullet count went down to 8.

The bullet was able to hit the upper part of her left shoulder but at the same time, a Meltdowner hit the ground beneath Akito.

Piles of earth from the point of impact flew to a great height.

The boy flew backwards due to the sudden explosion.

"Gaaaaahh!" Akito hit an uneven ground with a loud thud.

He struggled to get up, not having the time rest, and instantly fired three shots at Mugino but this time, the Level 5 brought out her right hand to put up a shield and again, the bullets melted due to the rapid movement of electrons. His shot count went down to 5.

"Tsk... This is getting real annoying." Mugino grabbed her left shoulder. "You got real lucky there, punk."

A stream of blood leaked out from the Level 5's shoulder.

Suddenly, a figure dressed in a black hoodie and jeans ran towards them from a distance.

"Y-you idiot! Stick with the plan!" The boy grew wide-eyed at the girl's sudden appearance.

Mugino looked at the newcomer clothes and then towards the incomplete android peeking from behind the tree. Their faces were the same however from what she remembered, the android she met on the bridge wore the exact same clothes as the one that was fast approaching them.

"Hahaha! Looks like your plan has been foiled." The Level 5 laughed. "You must've turned off some part in her system to stop her from emitting AIM and to hide from Takitsubo's AIM Stalker."

Mugino Shizuri let go of her shoulder and began to collect a massive amount of electrons into an orb in her right palm. The size was far larger than anything she has gathered before. She aimed the Meltdowner down at the boy who was having a hard time standing up.

In that instant the large beam of bright green light that could bore through a naval vessel headed towards Akito.

It was game over.

The situation took a turn for the worst because the beam did not hit Akito but the android he was trying to protect. The girl wearing the black hoodie pushed Akito out of the way from the massive Meltdowner.

"!?"

The beam incinerated the android's entire body.

She could not cry out.

Every part of her was torn through by the Level 5's Meltdowner.

Akito sat there motionless, watching the horrific scene unfold in front of him.

Once the beam subsided, he could only see a large hole on the ground.

He crawled towards the hole but nothing was left of her. Not a single trace.

The boy did not move from his spot.

His expression was completely empty.

"Tsk... I fucking screwed up." Mugino scratched her head. Her mission was only to retrieve the android, not annihilate it. She reached for her phone to contact Hamazura Shiage. "The mission's a bust. Call everyone back and also..." she took a quick glance at the boy before continuing. "Call the cleaners. I don't want to deal with this pathetic cockroach."

The phone snap shut.

Akito did not respond or was even paying attention to what she was saying.

Mugino looked at the incomplete android standing a certain distance away before firing a quick Meltdowner.

The android fell to the ground subsequently.

Mugino turned towards the boy. She knew she could kill him in an instant but she had taken a bullet to her shoulder so she decided to not idle any further and leave the boy to his grieving.

Akito was now left alone in the darkness of the woods.

After a while, he slowly stood up.

"Oww!" The boy touched his back before fixing himself up. "Are 'cleaners' some kind of group who do their bidding? Better hurry and get out of here then. I need to move some of the stuff in the dorm to create space for her."

The boy walked limply, taking small steps.

His phone vibrated from inside his pocket. He turned it on and brought it up to his ear.

"I've finished downloading the code. We're outside the facility now." Nunotaba spoke through the phone.

"I see. I've finished things here so I'm gonna head towards your location. By the way, how are we gonna wipe all her information from the lab's bank?"

"No need to worry. I know a certain Electromaster who specializes in this kind of thing. On a side note, Athena's eyes have grown red which means that she is about to cry so you best be hurry."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on my way." The young boy smiled.

"On a side note, she wants a new set of clothes for the ones you stole from her..."

"I'm the one who paid for those! But yeah, I'll buy her new ones so calm her down..." Akito turned off the phone and left the darkness of the park.

* * *

><p><em>Things are slowly changing... Academy City looks darker now but at the same time, there's also a lot of people lighting my path so I'm not alone. I have to be cautious from now on.<em>

Takayama Akito walked along the street towards his dorm in daylight, while holding a plastic bag.

He wore a white shirt and pants. A bandage wrapped around the boy's shoulder underneath his sleeve.

In his plan against ITEM, he used several imperfect androids as decoys to split the group up, installing them with Athena's AIM module, exploiting the information on the AIM Stalker, while giving the control of the androids to Nunotaba Shinobu. But even then, he used another android as a decoy for another decoy. It was a trap hidden beneath a trap. However, whether or not he would come back alive was a total gamble for him. There was no guarantee that the group would spare him but he accepted his fate. He was prepared to die as long as his precious friend, Athena the talkative know-it-all android, was safe.

He made a content smile as he turned the door knob to his room.

"?"

After a moment, Akito stopped in his tracks after seeing several shoes at the entrance.

They were not his.

"Those freeloaders again." The young boy let out a small sigh as he walked further in but was stopped immediately at the sight of Nunotaba Shinobu and some other people he didn't knew.

"Welcome home, shishou!" Athena greeted the boy before serving tea to the guests.

"Ah! Welcome Akito-kun!" Tsuchimikado Maika worked at the kitchen doing all sorts of stuff.

"Huh?"

Saten Ruiko, Uiharu Kazari, Shirai Kuroko and Misaka Mikoto looked up at the young boy.

"Ne~ Wasn't this some sort of dorm-styled cafe?" Misaka turned towards Nunotaba Shinobu.

"Yes, it is." Shinobu smiled as she took a sip from her tea. "He is the owner of the cafe. One of his talents is his good acting skills."

"Eh~? So he performs shows here as well?" Saten Ruiko took a bite from crepe which Tsuchimikado Maika made.

"As I was saying, I met this annoying woman the other day during my patrol in the Science and Liberal Arts Exhibition." Shirai sounding displeased as she put her elbow down on the square table.

"What was she like, Shirai-san?"

The group of girls continued their idle chatter as they sat on the orange cushions around the small square table.

"Ah! There's no more tea. I must head out!" Athena rushed out of the room, brushing past the young boy.

Akito stood silently in the entry way.

Another group of people was using the boy's room as their private lunch area.

"..."

Akito stomped menacingly towards the table. He was emitting a fearsome vibe.

The girls looked up at him with puzzled and worried expressions.

What was the boy going to do to them?

Was he going to throw the strangers out of his beloved dorm room which has recently been a haven for people looking for a place to eat?

Akito gave them a brief cold hard stare before bringing forth the plastic bag.

"... I brought cake."

* * *

><p><strong>I appreciate the feedback as always!<strong>

**Feel free to pm me any time~**

**To be honest, I didn't put much thought into Takayama Akito's name. I just took the surname of "Takayama" from Railwars because that character was wasted in that "all-fanservice-and-no-plot" anime, and then I took "Akito" because he was my favorite character in Air Gear but when I looked up the translation for the name, it turned out that it meant "Satisfaction", pretty ironic considering his attitude back in the previous chapters xD**


	11. A Certain Unscientific Love Affair

**Yep you guessed it right, it's a filler chapter~ but an exciting one~**

**I think I have improved since my first chapter and it's all thanks to all of your encouragements! So here's hoping for feedback and reviews(seriously though I love reading reviews)**

**This chapter occurs before the English Civil War.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 11 - A Certain Unscientific Love Affair.<strong>

* * *

><p>"Shishou..." Athena spoke with a quiet voice towards the young boy with blonde hair in front of her.<p>

"Hm?" The boy turned around and saw Athena's big sky blue eyes filled with yearning. There were some tears that hanged at the edges of her eyes.

"Shishou... I..." Her voice trembled a bit. "I... I love you!" The artificial girl gathered all her courage into those three words. She finally expressed her feelings towards the young boy whom she had always looked on with keen eyes ever since they first met.

Back when she was being tutored at her facility in order to invoke her esper ability, she did not understand the meaning of the words 'happiness', 'sadness', 'anger', 'hatred' or 'love'. Her head was only filled with various branches of knowledge such as Calculus, Theoretical Physics, Philosophy, World History, Linguistics and Chemistry. However, the Testament machine that was integrated in her brain also gave her the gift of curiosity and empathy along with those knowledge. As time went on, she began to grow curious of all these things that were being subtly mentioned in her lessons.

One of the reasons she began her quest was the researchers that monitored her development. One time, she did not go to her sleeping pod in order to 'shut down' and instead, sneaked around the entire facility.

From afar, she listened to the casual conversations of two security guards during one of their patrols. Their conversations were full of heated arguments about an epic baseball game.

She watched little children belonging to one of the scientists playing tag around the lobby area.

And finally as she walked along the dark halls of the building, she noticed the door to one of her usual lecture rooms.

The door was slightly ajar and a faint light came from within.

She curiously peeked through the small slit and saw her tutor, a female just like her, sitting on a chair facing right, and another person whom she recognized as a researcher for a different project. The researcher was of the opposite sex, a male. She wondered what the two were doing being so awfully close together.

The researcher was behind her tutor and was wrapping his arms around her. His hands gently caressed around her shapely body through her clothes.

The tutor let out a faint moan of pleasure as the male did his work. He slowly leaned in closer to her and the two gently made contact with their lips. Athena watched the two during their passionate action that lasted for two whole minutes. It was called 'kissing' is what the information stored in her computerized brain told her.

Athena felt an unusual sensation well up in her. She blushed a deep red as she felt several mixed emotions that she could not identify. It was the first time that she had experienced such a wild and intense feeling.

She left afterwards and returned to her sleeping pod. She recounted the experiences she went through today, as usual, as she gradually went into a state of hibernation: The jeering and arguing of the security guards. The smiles and laughter of the children. And most of all, the intimate interaction between the male and the female.

What is this world that she lives on?

What are human beings and why do they do what they do?

What are 'feelings'?

Not able to hold down her curiosity any longer, she left the facility in order to search for her answers.

"...I know I am not human..." Athena spoke nervously, gripping her hands tightly. "...and there may be nothing that will happen between us but... but I-"

"Don't be stupid."

The girl looked up in surprise. _Did I go too far? Is shishou disgusted that a machine like me is confessing its feelings to him?_

Before she could brace herself for the hurtful words of rejection, the young boy said something completely unexpected.

"... You have always been in my mind ever since we first met, I have always, always dreamed of us staying together forever... so much that it crushes me when I think that you do not see me that way."

"No! I would never-"

Akito pulled the girl closer to him and grabbed her shoulders before she could utter anything else.

"S-shishou!?" Athena blushed heavily. She could not follow the sudden turn of events. The boy was being overly aggressive. It was a side of him that she didn't knew.

"I can't hold it in anymore..." The boy looked at Athena's moist lips. His expression was like that of a starving wolf, wanting to claim the delicious things for himself.

The girl was in a state of confusion. She wanted to resist the boy's advances however a part of herself did not. That part desired for this to happen, to experience the interaction between a male and a female.

"It's okay right?"

Athena felt the boy's arms wrapping around her thin body, clutching tightly onto her waist and shoulders. She cannot get away.

The boy leaned in closer inch by inch. Their faces were so close she could feel his warm breath.

Her artificial heart pounded wildly under her chest. Her face was a deep shade of red. Her mind was in a complete daze as she could only think of the boy she was in love with. Finally she was in the same position as her tutor. Finally she was going to experience that intense feeling for herself.

Her breath grew weak as she opened her mouth to welcome the boy's lips. She was finally about to experience heaven for herself but sadly, it was not true.

"Hey~! Breakfast is ready!"

The wonderful scene faded in front of her eyes. She heard a familiar voice calling her back to the real world. After a second, her eyes opened lazily.

The bright morning sun penetrated the dorm's windows and blinded her for a moment.

"Nnnhh..." Athena rubbed her eyes and saw the boy that was in her dreams wearing blue shorts and a blue apron that hung over his white shirt. "Good morning.." She mumbled, still half asleep.

"Yeah. Good morning!" Akito focused hard as he slowly moved a frying pan containing sunny side up eggs closer towards two plates on the square table. A sausage with several burn marks lay on top of each plate. He distributed the two eggs to each of the plates and sighed in exhaustion after finishing. It has been a while since he had to cook so he was out of practice with preparing meals.

Before Athena became a resident of this dorm, the boy usually ate outside in fast food restaurants or just ate instant cup ramen but now the two decided to create a schedule on who will cook breakfast, clean the bathroom, do the groceries and other chores.

Athena got up, stretched her arms and sluggishly moved towards the small brown table. She was wearing light blue pyjamas that seemed to be popular among middle school girls. Her eyes were half open.

"Hm? What's up?" The boy sat down in front of Athena and noticed her staring at him as he put his hands together to say 'Itadakimasu.'

"It's nothing." The girl closed her eyes and clasped her hands together as well. "You just woke me up from a pleasant dream is all."

_Do androids even dream?_ Akito pondered one of the greatest questions of every computer scientist as he grabbed his knife and fork.

Athena stole several short glances at the young boy while he was cutting his meal into bits and pieces. The morning sunlight reflected on his blonde hair, making it a shiny gold color. Flocks of fluffy hair stuck out amusingly around his head. Last night, she listened to him talk about how cooking was such a pain but in the end, he tried his very best. Her heart was overjoyed by how cute the boy was.

"It's amazing how you can convert the nutrients in the food into energy for your system." The boy paying more attention on the food than who he was speaking to. "Those scientists really outdid themselves in making you close to being human."

That was not the kind of topic the girl was eager to dive into.

"..." Displeased of where the conversation was going, Athena munched on the salty egg. _Ahh of course. He only ever thinks of me as an amazing piece of technology and not a woman. I may not be human but I look just like any normal girl. The least he could do is ask how I was doing..._

"Alan Turing was right. Once a computer reaches an extremely high level of complexity and able to make conversations, you won't be able to distinguish it from a regular human."

It only took the girl 2 minutes to finish her breakfast. She then got up to clean her plate and utensils, completely ignoring the boy while he was still eating.

"What's wrong? Was I mistaken somewhere?" Akito raised his brow in puzzlement, completely oblivious of what the girl was thinking.

Athena moved towards the closet to get some clothes before heading towards the bathroom. The door closed with a loud bam.

_Is she angry that I ate her hamburgers? _Akito finally finished eating.

He washed all the remaining tableware while Athena was taking a shower. After placing the last plate unto the rack, he consumed a pill that his teacher told him to take and went towards his desk where he took out his homework and several reference books.

"Let's see... where was I again?" He flipped through the pages of the reference book as he spun his pen around his thumb.

It was October 12. There were no classes today so he decided to finish all the stuff he had left undone during the many hectic events that had occurred around him.

After several minutes, Athena got out of the steam-filled bathroom. She was now wearing the light-blue hoodie which the boy picked out for her and flesh-colored khaki pants that wrapped tightly around her legs. Her bright ginger hair was still a bit wet. She saw the boy studying in front his desk with his back towards her. _Not that I... wanted to get his attention anyway... _

Since the day they started living together, she hoped that their relationship would grow into something. But in actuality, she felt that their distance grew instead. Even though she was not actually a human girl, the boy decided on his own to sleep on a futon near the kitchen instead of sleeping beside her on the bed that was originally his. She mistook the gesture as a polite way of giving her space. It was actually the boy being conscious of her assets as a girl. As a result, she grew anxious that it lessened her opportunities to snuggle up to him.

"Shishou, I'll be going out for a while..." Athena walked towards the door quietly before taking her black sandals from the entrance.

"Hm..? Okay." The boy still working on his homework. "Oh right, I'll be going out as well later so I'll probably not be here for lunch..." He turned around and saw the girl had already left. _She must be reeaally mad about those burgers._

After finishing his homework which only took about 10 minutes, he reached down to his desk's drawers and retrieved several papers and notes. He put his research notes on espers aside and placed a handful of papers regarding Project ATHENA on his desk.

He had worked together with Shinobu and Athena to put a stop to the plan of Academy City's 12th Mechatronics Laboratory in developing artificial espers for military use. He also fought against ITEM and nearly died if not for the carelessness of the Level 5, Mugino Shizuri. It was all for the sake of Athena's freedom that he put himself in so much danger. He wanted to save her with all his might just as his friends had saved him during the conflict with REBEL.

Now Shinobu had to return to her work away from Academy City and Akito was left with the responsibility of taking care of Athena and tying up the loose ends of their plan of sealing the project for good. Although he still wonders why Athena didn't just go with Shinobu to begin with since she will definitely be safer with her than here in Academy City.

"Let's see..." Akito scanned the news and reports he had compiled himself. "This company had gone bankrupt right after the SLA Exhibition so their agreement with the laboratory has been cut off..." He flipped another page. "I interfered with this one's transaction and distributed the funding to multiple homes for Child Errors... " The boy continued his thorough analysis of the situation inside his dorm room.

For the past few days, he scanned through the entire web for any rumors or news about the project. He made sure that not a single whiff of news or even the slightest detail pass him. That was how determined he was in protecting the android's freedom.

"Well I guess that's that." The boy returned all the documents to their rightful place. "All that's left is to meet up with that information broker..."

"Huh? What's this?" After taking a shower and getting dressed in his usual white hoodie with a big X-mark design and jeans, he noticed a small frog-like character attached to a strap that was lying on the floor at one corner of the room. "Must've belong to one of those people that came into my room recently." He put the strap in his pocket and got out of the dorm.

Academy City was its usual peaceful self, completely different from the nightmarish ones he remembered where he fought to the death. The weather was so clear and not a single cloud in sight. The various students in Academy City continued on with their daily routines.

Akito casually walked along the streets, not paying much attention to his surroundings and thinking instead of his next move after confirming that Project ATHENA was indeed discontinued.

He reached the station of the monorail and stood on the platform with his head down, completely immersed in his thoughts as he waited for the train to arrive.

A person walked up to him and lightly tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. "Yo! What are you doing here, Takayama? Happily spending the free time you have?" The person made a wide grin.

No reaction came from the young boy. He just stood there like a statue.

"Oi! Earth to Takayama!" The wide grin faded from the face of the stranger.

Still, the boy was completely lost in thought.

From out of nowhere, the stranger delivered a hand chop to the young boy's head.

"Ow! What's your problem?" Akito grabbed his head to quell the pain. "Huh? Oh it's just you."

" Geez! What kind of greeting is that? " A girl with amber eyes and a long pony-tail put her hands to her hips. "And why were you just spacing there like an idiot anyway?"

She was Tatemiya Haruka. His old classmate from middle school, before he moved to Academy City, as well as the strongest esper in his entire school.

"Huh? Oh it's nothing... just thinking about stuff. Are you on Judgment duty?" Akito noticed the girl was wearing her Judgment armband on her right shoulder. The sleeves of her school uniform's white dress shirt were folded despite the cold weather. Only her red necktie could be considered protection from the cold.

"Yeah! I'm on my way to the office right now." Haruka noticed the boy's tired expression. "What's wrong with you? You look like you just pulled out an all-nighter."

"It's nothing. Just did some studying last night." Akito lied to the girl. He was actually searching the web for information about Project ATHENA. And the fact that he was still adjusting to sleeping in a futon.

The technological train arrived on the platform after a few minutes. It's white walled doors opened swiftly and the cold air went out. The two entered the train and sat down next to each other.

_He doesn't have to push himself so hard just to pass Level 0... _The pony-tailed girl looking concerned over her middle-school rival. "Hey... you shouldn't overwork yourself so much..."

"Huh?" Confused, the boy looked up towards Haruka.

"You know... with becoming an esper and all."

"Ohh right. Noted."

The girl let out a worried expression at the boy's relaxed response.

Suddenly, they boy said something unexpected to the Level 4 esper. "...Do you remember why you came here in Academy City and became an esper? Don't tell me you just followed me here."

"Hahaha! Of course not!" Eyes twitching, a sweat drop formed on the young girl's forehead. "Everyone knows that being an esper helps you find work easier when you enter the real world!"

"Uh huh..."

"How about you..?"

"I just wanted to see what it's like to have those amazing powers. Even just a tiny sliver of it." Akito slowly stretched out his hand towards the visible landscape of Academy City from the transparent window of the train.

There was a hidden power inside everyone is what he thought before he moved to Academy City. He believed that power will bring excitement to his mundane life and make him stand above the rest.

He couldn't stand a single second without having it.

He pushed himself to the limits, desperately chasing after that mysterious existence.

Anything for the sake of achieving even just a small bit of that power.

"But now I think that someone who wants to become an esper shouldn't have such juvenile thoughts so I'm not so sure anymore." Closing his hand into a fist, he grabbed nothing but the air inside the train.

"I see..."

"If I had arrived at Academy City, became an esper and got carried away with that power, I might've end up turning against you, Tomoya and Tsuyuri-san. I might've tried using it to hurt other people as well." Akito looked down at his feet. "That thought kind of scares me a bit. So I'm honestly not sure if I am able enough to become an esper."

"... Hmph! Don't underestimate me boy!" Haruka puffed her chest up. "I'll take you on any time. I don't care how strong you would've become, I'll put you down in a heartbeat! After all, I'm stronger than you think I am!"

"..." The boy paused for a bit before covering his mouth and restraining himself from laughing.

"O-oi! What's wrong with that?!"

"...No, no you're right." The boy wiped a bit of tear in his eye. "Why am I worrying when we have the great Level 4 here?"

"Damn straight! I'll knock some sense into you when that time comes so don't cry your eyes out!"

"Haha... You're right... You're a really strong esper after all. It won't take long for you to become Level 5." Akito smiled. "Because of how you never stop moving forward, only looking at what's right in front of you, you became so strong in such a short amount of time after arriving in Academy City. That's how you have always been. I envy that side of yours..."

"W-what's gotten into you suddenly?!" The pony-tailed Level 4 esper turned slightly red. "Who are you and what have you done with that brat?!"

"It's true you know. I really do think you can become a Level 5 with a bit more effort." Akito looked away for a moment. _Take it from someone who fought one and nearly died. If Nunotaba-san wasn't so good in using my other phone to control all those androids, I would have been completely turned into dust._

"Seriously, what's gotten into you?!" Haruka frantically shook the boy on his shoulders, a piece of his soul was about to escape. "The brat that I know of wouldn't be so supportive or as mature as this! You would always go about bragging that you didn't have a hard time in exams and you always laugh at me whenever I screw up during the Power Tests!"

"What?! I don't remember doing such things!"

"You were such a pain in the ass! I really held myself back from charring you every time we met!" The girl clenched her fist tightly. A cross shaped vein can be seen on her forehead.

The train was beginning to slow down as it was arriving the next station.

"Well, I guess I don't mind this new you." The girl stood up and turned to face Akito. "Don't forget that I'll be here when you stop idling and finally become a Level 5... Until then, I'll be waiting." Grinning, she brought her hand out to the young boy in the form of a fist.

Akito was taken aback for a second by the pony-tailed girl's words. "... Yeah!" The boy bumped his fist with the girl before she got off the train to head towards her Judgment office.

* * *

><p>There was a rumor among the girls attending middle school and high school, that a mysterious figure who claims to be the Love Master often frequents a certain family restaurant near a certain hospital in District 7. The rumored Love Master gives out advice to whoever approaches her without any compensation. Those who follow the advice exactly as the Love Master told them to will conquer the heart of their significant other, 90% guaranteed.<p>

Athena walked around the streets looking for the rumored family restaurant and attracting the attention of several students.

After a while, she found the restaurant and just as the rumor said, it was near a hospital. She entered the family restaurant without hesitation and began her search for the Love Master.

She looked around the interior for anyone who might be the Love Master and saw a girl with short brown hair and wearing industrial goggles, sitting all by herself near the window of the restaurant. Full of determination, she approached the girl.

"Are you the so-called 'Love Master'?" She stood beside the girl. Her eyes did not show any embarrassment at what she just said.

The brown haired girl looked at her with blank eyes for a while before giving her reply. "Who wants to know? asks Misaka #19090 as she tries to hide her joy after finally saying that cool line."

"Please, I need your help!" Athena pleaded, bowing in front of the Love Master.

"... Then, please have a seat, says Misaka #19090 after noticing your struggle." The Misaka clone gestured over to the seat in front of her. "So, what seems to be the problem? asks Misaka #19090 as she takes a good look at you."

Athena sat down and placed her hands on the wide table. "Well... you see... "

At the same time,

"Huh?" A Misaka Mikoto noticed something missing in her pocket. "No... nonononono where is it?! It must be here somewhere!"

She rummaged the pockets of her winter uniform of the prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School. She then took out her wallet and checked its contents but the thing she was looking for was not there.

It was her favorite and most prized possession. She had dozens of Gekota merchandise stored in her room but that one was very precious.

_Think, THINK! Retrace your steps! Let's see I went to that restaurant and met up with #19090 but I think it fell even before then so... _The Ace of the prestigious Tokiwadai middle school, also known as the Level 5 Railgun, rubbed her temples, desperately trying to recall when did she left that precious object.

She blindingly walked onwards on the peaceful sidewalk as she tried to recall where she drop her precious Gekota strap.

Suddenly, after reaching the corner of the street, she bumped into someone.

"Ah sorry about that." The spiky haired boy looked down and saw a familiar face. "Huh? Misaka?"

The girl looked up after hearing that voice. "W-what are you doing here?!" She blushed slightly as she pulled away from the boy.

"Well, this and that happened hahaha..." Kamijou Touma made a sheepish smile as he scratched his cheek.

"W-well anyway, you're gonna help me." Without warning, Misaka Mikoto tugged on the boy's sleeve and dragged him towards a certain direction.

"W-wait! We just bumped into each other! Where are you taking this humble and innocent Kamijou-san who did nothing wrong?!"

Just like that, the unfortunate high school boy got dragged into something he was not expecting.

Meanwhile inside the certain family restaurant where a love consultation is being held,

"Hmph. what took you so long?" Shirai Kuroko with her elbow unto the table, looking displeased.

"Sorry, sorry." Musujime Awaki sat on the seat opposite of the twin-tailed Judgment officer. "Did you wait long?"

"Do not make me say those stupid words: 'No, I just got here'! I only came here after all because a brute like you needs to learn her lesson!"

In a calm and almost amused manner, Musujime Awaki spoke "I see, I see." She then put her hand up to get the waitress's attention.

* * *

><p>Takayama Akito walked along the streets of District 7.<p>

He was currently on a mission to gather information on Project ATHENA by meeting up with an information broker.

The boy took a sudden turn around the corner and entered the dark alley in front of a family restaurant.

"Hey! long time no see, Takayama. How are Shin and Mikoshiba these days?" A girl with a slightly muscular build with long orange hair tied up in a high pony tail, and wearing a Kirigaoka Girls' Academy uniform stood to greet the young boy.

"Don't know. Don't care. Let's quit with the chitchat shall we?" The boy with a serious tone. "You're from _that side _aren't you? I could feel it from your presence and your connection with those guys."

"... Hahaha! So what if I am?" Yamazaki Maya laughed heartily at the innocent boy's inquiry.

The boy collected his thoughts.

He was aware that there are different people who are working on the dark side from what Nunotaba Shinobu said further after their conflict with ITEM. Each individual on the dark side had their own reason for working there. For example, they may have been forced because they were being blackmailed by someone who is already working on the dark side. Perhaps they were in desperate need of money. Or they were illegal aliens that hid inside Academy City and had to work for a dark side organization in order to maintain their residence, and their life.

"Have you heard the name Project ATHENA before?"

"Pro'ly." The girl shrugged nonchalantly.

"Regarding that, I need whatever information you have." Akito unfazed by her uncaring attitude.

Amused by the boy's desperation, Maya slowly brought her hand out. "It'll cost ya." A wide grin formed on her lips.

The boy took several small chunks of paper from his hoodie's pocket and placed it on the girl's hand.

The girl happily took the lumps of paper but stopped suddenly after noticing that what she received was not money but something else. "Oi! What the hell is this?!" She held out the stuff to the young boy.

"Redeemable coupons for electronic gaming currency. Those things are worth 30,000 yen." The boy spoke with a straight face.

Maya blankly stared at the things for a minute and then, "HAHAHAHAHA! Oh man, this is rich!"

There was a certain standard in the dark side. Information was a very valuable thing. A single tiny detail could determine the life and death of a person, a company's fortune or the result of a war. So in the dark side, information is costly and a lot of people stake their lives on it. The price could range up to billions of yen. For Maya, what she just received today was the funniest, most unthinkable object to use in exchanging for information for a top secret Academy City project. If she were to give an estimate for the actual price of the information, it would be around 8 million yen.

She laughed for quite a while. Her hands were on her sides as the continuous laughter began its effects on her body. That was how comical the boy's actions were.

"You know, kid." Maya finally coming back to her senses. "In the dark side, we don't play around with these kinds of stuff. Heck, I might even try to kill you just because you contacted me for information just in case you were a spy."

Akito gulped, sensing the change in atmosphere around the girl. _Have I been too careless? I should've scanned the area beforehand for security robots._

"But, man. This is one of those situations where you can't help but not get mad at the guy." She wiped the tears out of her eyes. "So, to reward you for giving me such a good laugh today, I'll give you a bit of a hint..."

Inside the family restaurant,

"... I see. Although it is a bit embarrassing, that point of attack is crucial in dealing significant damage to him." Athena rubbed her chin as she pondered Misaka #19090's suggestion.

"Misaka thinks we are facing similar problems, says Misaka #19090."

"I-I don't think I have the capacity to do that yet... My brain's circuits will get burnt by doing so."

The two exchanged ridiculous ideas one after another. Some included over the top feats such as the infamous 'naked apron'.

"You should take advantage of your figure, suggests Misaka #19090 as she assess your body and compares it with hers but changes her mind in the last second."

Athena smiled and laughed at the girl's ridiculous comments but suddenly, for no reason at all, she looked out through the window of the family restaurant as she took a sip of her hot tea.

There wasn't anything particular on the street but she had a feeling that she had to inspect the surroundings with detail. She looked towards the alley in front of the restaurant with her enhanced android eyes.

She saw two people. One of them was Takayama Akito, the very reason why she was here having a consultation about love, and the other was a girl wearing a uniform that she recognized from Kirigaoka Girls' Academy.

She stared at them with blank eyes. There was no reason why she should react to the scene. Absolutely no reason at all. For all she knew, the girl was asking directions inside a dark alley where no one will be able to interrupt them.

She moved the white cup away from her lips and gently put it down while watching them.

Gently.

Gently.

Gently.

Just as the cup made contact with the table. Both table and cup inadvertently smashed into pieces by her robotic strength.

Misaka #19090 silently looked on as she saved her own tea cup from the destruction.

Without a single word, she rushed away from the Love Master and the restaurant. From across the street, she brought her left hand out towards the young boy in the alley and activated her ability, Vortex Point.

"... I see. It seems that things have begun to settle down now." Takayama Akito faced the older high school girl from the dark side. "Thanks a lot. I'll pay you back somehow- Huh?" The young boy felt a tugging sensation coming from his back, like someone pulling on his clothes. After a second, his feet left the ground and got sucked in by an unknown source. "Uwaaaahh!"

Maya stared wide eyed at the scene as her client got dragged away by some mysterious force. "Looks like things just got troublesome. I'll have to take my leave." Noticing the source of the mysterious phenomenon, she turned towards the other direction and began to walk away.

Akito flew through the streets straight into the family restaurant.

In the next instant, the young boy slowed down and then was grabbed from behind by a teenage girl with ginger hair and sky blue eyes.

"Shishou, with all my might, I will protect you from all these interlopers." Athena spoke with an ominous robotic tone.

"W-wha? What are you doing here?!"

"Please hold on tightly..." Athena gathered strength into her legs. Her rotors, gyroscopes, axis drivers and other robotic components which controlled her movements all did their necessary calculations and adjustments. There was a small metallic sound coming from inside her body.

Before Akito could react, he and the artificial human shot upwards into the air above the family restaurant.

* * *

><p>"So, we are looking for one of your frog toys again?" Kamijou Touma with a tired expression.<p>

"It's not just some frog toy, it's Gekota!" Misaka Mikoto tightly grasped the boy's arm as she led him around the street. Although she has been saying some harsh words to the high school boy, she was actually kind of happy that she bumped into him. She didn't understand why, only that she felt secured being with him.

"It must be really tough being a middle school girl." The spiky haired boy sighed.

Surprised by the sudden change of topic, "What do you mean?" Misaka tilted her head slightly.

"Well," The boy rubbed his head. "You are always being asked to go to all those different labs right? Even though you are so young, everyone is expecting so much from you."

"W-well, I'm a Level 5 after all so," Misaka looked away for a bit and then continued. "I need to work hard, not just for them or myself but for my parents as well!"

"Hahaha you are really dependable, aren't you?" The boy let out a wide grin.

"Of course I am! So enough chatting and just walk with me. Keep an eye out for anything-"

Misaka Mikoto suddenly remembered something very important. She recalled the conversation that she overheard from the boy's phone during the time when the boy asked about the current situation in Avignon.

"H-hey you-" She turned to face the boy but saw him looking at a certain direction so she followed his line of sight and then,

"Misaka!" Turning to face Misaka, Touma pointed towards the young the boy being kidnapped by a girl in front of a family restaurant.

"Right, leave it to me!" Misaka Mikoto used her ability as an Electromaster and generated electricity from her body. Using the electric current to magnetize herself, she shot upwards with amazing speed towards a metallic structure.

She grabbed hold of a metal railing of a small billboard on top of the small grey apartment building beside the family restaurant. But then she realized that Kamijou Touma will not be able to keep up with her so she looked down towards him to say something but,

"I'll be fine!" The spiky haired boy shouted from down below on the street. "I'll catch up somehow!"

"Then," Misaka Mikoto grinned and turned towards the kidnapper. "I guess I can go all out!"

The android aimlessly leapt from building to building using her highly advanced robotic body.

Takayama Akito shouted, "Where are you taking me?!" The cold wind blew on his face as he was being carried bridal style by the android girl.

She looked towards the distance unemotionally.

"I will not let anyone take you away from me." Without the boy noticing, Athena pointed the finger of her right hand towards his face. Green-colored gas leaked out from the tip and blew towards the young boy.

"Wh-what are you talking about?!"

A second later, Akito was met with an extreme wave of drowsiness.

"Why...am I... suddenly so...slee...zzzzzz"

Akito's eyes shut tight before beginning his journey to the land of sleep.

"Sleep for a while, shishou. I'll take care of the rest." The girl let out a gentle smile towards the sleeping boy.

Suddenly, the android girl heard a loud voice from behind her.

"Hey! What are you doing to that boy?!" Mikoto shouted as she caught up to the android's speed.

Several people who were walking down on the sidewalks saw the spectacle. They watched the amazing stand off for a while before shrugging it off and then continuing with their business.

"Intruder detected." Athena spoke with a robotic tone. She pointed her left hand towards the Level 5 and fired machinegun bullets which came out from the 3 small barrels that appeared on the back of her hand. "It was a good thing that Shinobu-san provided me with ammo for self-protection."

A barrage of bullets rained down at the Level 5 Railgun.

"W-what the hell?! Are you some kind of Terminator?!"

Mikoto generated a wave of electricity from her bangs and shot it forwards to intercept the bullets.

The bullets exploded as they came in contact with the Level 5's attack.

"Switching attack pattern to esper mode." Athena spoke again with a robotic tone. She stopped the barrage of bullets and instead, opened her left hand as she activated her power, Vortex Point.

Being a subset of her ability as an Electromaster, Mikoto used magnetism to increase the distance of her jumps to each building by attracting herself to metallic objects just like the railing from earlier.

Suddenly a feeling like someone was pulling her, similar to her magnetism, covered Mikoto's right side.

In the next instant, the Level 5 esper was pulled towards a radio tower about 10 meters away by an invisible force. Once her right shoulder made contact with the tower, the feeling disappeared and she fell down on top the rooftop of a certain building.

"Ouch!" The Level 5 esper rubbed her shoulder to ease the pain. Thankfully, she used her magnetism to pull herself into the opposite direction before the impact so the force that was pulling her from before was reduced. " This is troublesome. I can't use any attacks on her, especially my Railgun, because I might hit that boy. My only hope is to somehow get past her and snatch the boy away..."

The two continued their explosive mid-air battle over the several districts of Academy City. The cat and mouse chase continued for over an hour.

"Dammit , when are you going to give up?!" Slightly out of breath, Misaka Mikoto faced the android esper on a children's park back at District 7.

"I will protect shishou with my life!" With a dead serious expression, Athena pointed her left hand at Mikoto as she held Akito with her right. Suddenly, she noticed something familiar about the girl. "Wait. Are you not...?"

Suddenly, several a chain of footstep could be hear from the distance.

"Misaka!" Extremely exhausted, Kamijou Touma arrived at the scene and moved beside Mikoto. "Are you alright?!"

The spiky haired boy had been running around Academy City, desperately trying to catch up with the two girls.

"What are you doing here Love Master?"

That sudden voice caught the attention of the two. They both tilted their heads in confusion.

"Why are you chasing me Love Master? I thought you advised me to increase my advances?!" Athena aimed her plea at the confused middle schooler from Tokiwadai.

"E-ehh? What are you talking about?!"

"I think she means you, Misaka." The spiky haired pointed his finger towards Mikoto.

"Did she meet my clone or something?! What does she mean by 'Love Master'?!" Mikoto whispered. The Level 5 grew confused with each passing second.

"Please tell me how I should effectively convey my feelings to him!" A bit of desperation hung over Athena's voice.

"What? Are you asking me?!" Mikoto looked over at the boy which the mysterious girl was carrying. _Ah! She must be meaning to confess to that boy! Wait, where have I seen him before?_

Misaka Mikoto thought hard on what she was going to say.

"... Well, I guess you should just tell it to him straight. I mean you just gotta go all out you know-" She inadvertently moved her gaze towards Kamijou Touma. Her face turned into a very deep shade of red.

"Hehhh so you really are a master of love huh, Misaka?" Touma grinned at the girl beside him.

"S-S-SHUT UUUUUUUUP!"

Suddenly, Mikoto was enveloped by a large current of electricity.

"O-oi! Why are you so angry all of a sudden?!" The spiky haired boy took a step back away from the girl.

Without warning, the Number 3 Level 5 of Academy City shot spears of electricity towards the spiky-haired boy. The boy guarded with his right hand's ability, Imagine Breaker.

"Nnnn..." Takayama Akito slowly opened his eyes. "Huh? Where am I?"

" S-Shishou!" Athena let go of the boy and blushed slightly.

"Was I asleep? How did we get here?" Confused, the blonde haired boy looked around his surroundings.

"W-well, it's a really long story." The android girl looked away nervously. She was unable to explain that she used sleeping gas on him as well as planning to take him away to some faraway place where they could be alone.

"Huh? Isn't that Kamijou and the girl who went to our room recently?"

"U-umm about what happened, well there were enemies and you were cornered in an alley..." The girl muttered silently but the boy was not listening.

Akito silently walked towards the Level 5 esper, not minding all the electricity coming out of her as she attacked the spiky haired boy. "Hey! Is this yours?" He pulled out the strap with a frog character which he found earlier and tossed it over to Mikoto.

Noticing the young boy's call, Mikoto stopped her attacks to receive the object that he tossed over to her.

" This is it! This is the Lovely Mitten Gekota strap I've been looking for!" The girl exclaimed as she took a good look at the phone strap. "Where did you find it?"

"I found it at my dorm. Figured you dropped it when you were with your friends during that time." Akito shrugged.

"Huh? Misaka, you've already met Takayama?" Touma moved in closer after determining that it was safe to approach the two.

"You two know each other?!"

"We're neighbors." Akito stated plainly.

"Speaking of which, shishou. Who was that girl in the alley?" Athena crept up from behind.

"Ehh? W-well that's uhh... classified information!"

"..." An ominous aura surrounded the android.

Meanwhile from the other side of the group,

"So this is where you were, onee-sama." Shirai Kuroko teleported from behind Mikoto.

"Kuroko? Where have you been all this time?"

"W-well there was some business I had to attend to. Nothing important." Shirai looked away and inadvertently saw the spiky haired boy. "O-onee-sama, what are you doing with this brute?!"

The misunderstandings continued to pile on top of one another.

There were loud explosions, vending machines suddenly appearing and surges of electricity being fired. After a while, the commotion caught the attention of Judgment and Anti-Skill.

Unbeknownst to him, the mundane life that Takayama Akito wanted to escape from had already been left in the dust.

...

**From Akito's esper research notes:**

Name: Atsuchi Tomoya

Ability: Clairvoyance. The ability uses formulas similar to Teleporters which are based on concepts revolving Schrodinger's paradox. The success of the ability, which is to see through opaque objects, depends on the width and the material of the object being subjected to the Clairvoyance.

Power Level: 3

Description: Possible pervert and stalker. Must keep away. Has an addiction to comedy skits.

...

Name: Tatemiya Haruka

Ability: Flare Cloak. Pyrokinetic-variant. Rapidly increases the movement of molecules around her in a 60 meter radius through Telekinesis. She is able to compress the thermal radiation caused by her power into spheres which can explode when released or just release a scorching heatwave around her. Temperature threshold can reach up to 1602 degrees Celsius. Her powers have different usages so she can adapt easily in many different situations.

Power Level: 4

Description: A hardworker. Reckless. Often gets lost due to her lack of sense of direction. Is really bad with technology.

...

Name: Tsuyuri Aki

Ability: Deja vu. Precognition-type. Able to send her memories to a certain point in the past after coming into contact with a "Checkpoint". A special phenomenon, similar to interference, occurs when her AIM diffusion field comes into contact with other espers(known as "Checkpoints") and their AIM, including me. Her powers can only activate once she reaches a state of unconsciousness or sleep. She is still unable to fully control her power so her powers may or may not activate without her knowing it.

Power Level: 3

Description: Often hangs out with Tatemiya. Timid but extremely kind. Dislikes small insects.

...

Name: Athena

Ability: Vortex Point. Base Telekinetic-type. Based from our test results, she can pull objects or people into a certain point in a 23 meter radius around it like a magnet. Distance from the point to her is about 37 meters. Totaled weight of the objects being influenced by the power can sum up to 240 kg. All calculations are pure estimations of course since there is no power development institute analyzing her powers.

Power Level: 4

Description: Likes to debate about complicated subjects. Hamburgers seems to be her favorite food.

...

Name: Takayama Akito

Ability:

Power Level: 0

Description:

...

* * *

><p><strong>Welp look forward to next chapter! I promise it's gonna be something unexpected and also please giff review T.T<strong>

**My stuff is also going to be released once per week now due to work so apologies for my tardiness.**


	12. Blessings of the Night Mother

**Sorry for the late submission! **

**I've been real busy with my work these couple of days but now I finally have some time to write for the next chapters. **

**I'll probably be fixing some embarrassing grammatical mistakes in the previous chapters as well.**

**Anyway, I don't think I should say too much about this chapter so I'll just leave it up to you guys to find out what it's all about.**

**Criticisms, messages and reviews are always appreciated!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 12 - Blessings_of_the_Night_Mother.<strong>

* * *

><p>October 12.<p>

It was a sunny midday in Academy City.

Two sisters were walking along a peaceful pedestrian street in Academy City's seventh school district.

"As much as I love eating together with you, dear younger sister, do we really have to go out of our way in order to eat lunch? Couldn't we just order fast food and have it delivered?" A high school girl with long black flowing hair spoke with a tired expression. Feeling the lack of sleep catching on to her, she covered her mouth with one hand as she yawned. Her long skirt fluttered gently as she walked along the red bricked road.

Her name was Kumokawa Seria, also known as 'beauty senpai' among the juniors at her school.

Beside her was the younger sister, Kumokawa Maria, a maid-in-training at the Ryouran Maid School. She had long black hair just like her sister's but they were tied in locks. Her maid uniform was a combination of black and yellow colors which made her stick out a lot.

"Honestly, you should be thanking me for trying to fix that shut-in habit of yours!" Maria spoke in an irritated tone. "I seriously don't understand why you are always so tired. Oh but going through such a laborous task to wake you up does help me break my pride a bit." She pointed a finger to her lips at the the new breakthrough. "Well anyway, were you thinking all night about that spiky haired boy again?!"

Kumokawa Seria let out a sweet smile and shrugged. "Probably~"

Unbeknownst to her sister, Kumokawa Seria's phone has been vibrating nonstop inside her pocket with messages containing urgent matters related to Academy City. It was her job to solve each and every one of the problems being sent to her phone because she acts as the 'brain' of a certain member of Academy City's Board of Directors.

"There sure are a lot of things happening around recently." The elder sister yawned." Why can't the world just be peaceful for once?"

"What are you babbling on about now?"

"Don't mind me. I'm just talking to myself." Seria spoke with an easy-going tone.

"Has that brain of yours finally turned to mush after staying cooped up for so long?!"

Kumokawa Seria brushed her off and continued. "Despite not being a real military force, the Roman Catholic Church's great influence around the world is sure to pressure Academy City." She spoke nonchalantly as she observed the area.

Different types of restaurants sporting different kinds of exotic cuisine lined up on both sides of the long pedestrian street. Its road was piled on by a layer of red bricks.

Most of the food being sold at the restaurants are affordable even by an average student's regular allowance. However, Kumokawa Seria and Kumokawa Maria were having trouble finding a restaurant that wasn't crowded in this bustling time of the day.

"This is the first time I've heard you talking about troublesome issues related to Academy City. Exactly what _are _you doing inside that room of yours?"

The elder sister shrugged. "Oh, just lazing around. It just so happens that something has recently directed my attention towards this issue."

"Well whatever that may be it doesn't change the fact that we still have to find a good place to eat lunch."

The two took sharp a turn around the corner to the right of the pedestrian street.

"Just humor me for a bit, young one." The older sister spoke with a relaxed tone while the younger one was busy looking around for possible places to eat. "Aren't you concerned about the current tension in between Academy City and the Church?"

"Well..." Maria searched the new area as she thought of her next reply. "Academy City's military power is the most advanced in the world so I think we are safe from any form of attacks."

"From the outside of course." Smiling, Seria added as if she knew what her sister was going to say.

"What do you mean?"

"The tension between Academy City and the Church." Seria looked through the window of a restaurant as they passed it by. "Don't you think it's the perfect opportunity for a third party to come in?"

They walked a few more steps before Kumokawa Maria stopped in her tracks and showed a pitying face to her older sister.

"You really need to get out more..."

* * *

><p>Several consecutive reports entered Anti-Skill's radio wave channel.<p>

"District 6. Reporting from Intersection Q1 of Area K. Traffic just got denser all of a sudden. There's probably a gridlock a few blocks east from here. Not very unusual around these parts though if I may add."

"District 15. Reporting from 5th Street Area N. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"District 7. Reporting from Area B. False alarm on that previous report. Seems that some juvenile teenagers were just having some lover's quarrel in the Children's Park."

"District 13. Reporting from Area G. No discrepancies anywhere."

"District 1. Reporting from Kepler Avenue of Area A. A car swerved off its course and hit a commuter's bus, in front of Stock Exchange 1880, but there seems to be no casualties. Applying first aid now."

* * *

><p>Academy City, the city whose technology far surpasses the rest of the world by a wide margin of years, the city whose entire existence is devoted to researching various fields of science, was a city whose love for research was subtly and openly being integrated into the everyday lives of its residence. A certain library in District 7 was a clear example of this fact.<p>

Atsuchi Tomoya entered this library. Its large doors swung open with a big whoosh after being pushed on with minimal effort.

He wore a classy green knitted vest over a long-sleeved dress shirt and brown trousers. At first sight, people would assume that this was the boy's school uniform however this was actually his normal clothes.

The doors were made of an expensive type of wood, leaning towards an old and classic design instead of a modern one which Academy City was so used to. He looked around the large interior of the library. The flesh-colored walls and polished floors were as clean as ever. The information desk was in full view. Behind it was a succession of wide stairways that lead to the upper or lower floors.

The lobby area was visible from the upper floors.

There were fewer people than he had expected, two to be exact. One of them was on the 3rd floor while the other was on the 1st floor.

There wasn't anything particularly special about the library but there was also no reason for it to be this deserted was what came into his mind instantly.

"This place never changes! Don't people know how valuable books are?!"

Having seen the majority of people's lack of enthusiasm in seeking out knowledge, he couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh.

"I mean, one page of a historical novel, biography, or even a comic book can bring instant inspiration to anyone!" He shouted inside the quiet library, waving his hands up in the air in frustration.

Nobody was in the immediate in vicinity so no one took notice of his cry.

He then straightened himself up and quickly brushed the fringes of his black hair which barely touched the top of his thick-framed glasses before continuing on inside.

Most of Academy City's libraries contained various technological equipment to help people navigate through all its numerous sections or to lead them to a specific book or material.

Tomoya approached a small computer on the near side of the semi-circular information desk.

"It's too bad Akito-kun wasn't home. That boy really makes me worry sometimes~" He cheerfully hummed a certain song as he operated the computer. "Well, at least his cousin is there to take care of him now."

A small application window popped up right after he tapped a button on the small computer screen, showing a list of fictional novel titles and their respective section numbers.

A long and narrow piece of paper containing his selection of books was produced from a small cube device behind the monitor.

The glasses-wearing class representative swiftly took the paper in hand and trotted up the wide stairs of the library, still humming cheerfully.

The Level 3 esper was enjoying the quiet of the library as well as the peace of Academy City. There had been a lack of reported incidents being caused by Skill-Outs recently. And all his friends were safe and sound.

It may have been due to his efforts that a certain blonde-haired delinquent had changed his ways. However, he was still concerned for that young boy's safety. Especially when he found him in a hospital with a long wound on his right shoulder and several bruises around his body the day after he had visited him.

"But still... How did he got such an awful injury I wonder...?" Tomoya muttered to himself as he stopped in front of a bookshelf. His face turned grim. He feared the possibility that the boy was still doing something dangerous even though the boy has been more open and friendlier than before.

After a minute of contemplating, he shook all the negative thoughts away and continued his exploration the library.

The bookshelves were all a dark brown color, made from a sturdy wood that was grown using Academy City's own advanced Forestry technology. Its characteristics allows it to be resistant to fire and regenerate after a certain period of time upon being damaged.

A special system was being used for a certain experiment inside the library. It could also be considered as a special feature of the library. There were sensors placed in each bookshelf which triggers whenever a book is being misplaced or checked out to monitor the "popularity" of a certain shelf. If a certain shelf reaches a certain "popularity" level then the floor panels around that area will rotate like a conveyor belt, changing the positions of the bookshelves as well as the layout of that area. The purpose for this was to see if people were more resilient to change in their environment despite the continuous change in the layout of the library.

This system has been integrated since the library's opening day. So far, it has discouraged a lot of the library's customers which was the reason why the library was in its current state. And thus the library has earned the nickname: The Labyrinth of Words.

However, Tomoya was ignorant of this fact.

He walked along the west wing of the 2nd floor of the wide library.

The scenery of course was completely different from when he last visited. Having made several rotations and changes in the layout of the sections was definitely taxing to anyone who was a frequent visitor.

His last visit was around 3 weeks ago during a weekend. The section he was currently at during his last visit was shaped like an "L" but now it has been reconfigured and the layout of the section now was shaped like an "H".

He wondered what was the reason for The Labyrinth of Words apart from monitoring the interests of people with regards to books.

Maybe that was the reason why he often visited the library. The mystery attracted him greatly.

* * *

><p>A number of reports were sent in Anti-Skill's radio wave channel.<p>

"District 1. Reporting again from Kepler Avenue of Area A. The driver of the car that hit the bus is uninjured and is in some sort of trauma. His body is stiff and he is not responding to words. The ambulance we called in hasn't arrived yet."

"District 6. Reporting again from Intersection Q1 of Area K. Traffic is in a complete stop. It doesn't seem that it will be moving any time soon."

* * *

><p>"Back during the olden days of ancient history, even before the advent of The Son of God, countless scholars and philosophers observed and extrapolated the stars and the cosmos."<p>

Tomoya heard a soft mutter around the corner of the bookcase to his left.

"Enthralled, they observed the magnificent creations of the Gods. The Gods were beings which controlled the lives of mere mortals."

He walked slowly as he listened to the voice that echoed a bit in the library.

"Each God embodied a certain natural phenomena in nature. They were so powerful that a minor scuffle between the Gods, even a single action could bring utter destruction to the realm of the humans."

The words spoken out were like storytelling.

Tomoya began to grew curious while he maintained his pace.

"But even then, there were beings that stood above these Gods. They were the primordial existence, born from the creation of the entire universe. The most notable of these beings were born from chaos and disorder. They represented the darkness and the unknown. They were named by the countless worshippers as Nyx and Erebus."

He finally turned around the corner and caught a glimpse of a tall, pale middle-aged man wearing a black suit that had military badges stuck on the left chest area much like what a high ranking officer wears. His hair was silver in color and was fairly long. His body was so thin that it looked like he could collapse any second.

"Hmm... So even Academy City has pieces like this." The man inspected the middle page of the brown book in his hands. He turned the page with his gloved hand.

The boy continued forward but was suddenly stopped by a hand that grabbed his shoulders. The owner of that hand was the person who was reading a book just a moment ago. That same man was got close to the boy almost instantly as if he just teleported. The book was back in its place.

"Excuse me. You are a student here in Academy City are you not?" The man spoke quietly as he looked down at a nervous Tomoya.

"Y-yes?" The boy slowly looked up and spoke.

The man let out a weak smile and spoke. "Now now. No need to be afraid, young one."

The man's presence was so unique and overwhelming. He seemed to be a foreigner from his facial features and his lack of accent.

"I am looking for a certain book and an acquaintance of mine pointed me to this particular library but it seems that Academy City's eccentric technology is standing in my way." The man produced a small scrap of letter paper from his coat's pocket.

Tomoya had a set of personal rules which he established the day he became an esper. He followed these rules strictly to the letter. The first of these rules was: Always be polite to strangers.

"I'd be glad to help!" The boy composed himself and made a bright smile towards the peculiar man. "I'm a superhero after all~!" He then took the scrap in hand.

"Ohh... I see. I'm thankful that I have such a dependable young boy to help me." The man let out a relieved sigh.

"Are you from outside of Academy City, mister?" The boy asked as he read through what was written on the scrap of paper.

"Yes I am. I'm what you would call a scholar. I indulge myself in researching various branches of ancient history." The man smiled. "I like Ancient Greek most of all."

The boy looked at the man's attire, noticing how it doesn't match with the man's description of himself. "A scholar and not a man from the military like a Colonel or a Major?"

"I'm retired. These are just replicas of my old ones which I had back in my last mission with the country."

Tomoya returned his gaze towards the scrap of paper. He noticed how the words on the paper were written sloppily. There was ink scattered almost at every corner.

"Blessings of the Night Mother..." The boy spoke. "Huh... That's funny, It says here that the book should be around there." He moved towards the spot where the man had been previously.

The books, including the one which the man read a minute ago, were of different shapes and sizes. They were all History books which covered various eras.

"I have looked around that shelf already and I couldn't find it." The man said.

"Maybe someone has borrowed it already?"

"Oh.. umm.. No. It is definitely still here in the library. I even checked that machine downstairs."

The boy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. There were some things which did not make sense from what the man had said. For starters, why didn't he produced an output receipt from the machine containing the section number, call number and borrowed status of the book instead of relying on the scrap of paper? It seemed that he was trying to hide something. The boy however was reluctant to ask.

"Maybe it has been misplaced somewhere." Tomoya smiled sheepishly. "Let's just go look around this area until we find it."

The man who calls himself a scholar and the high school class representative split up and looked around that section of the library.

* * *

><p>A report was sent in Anti-Skill's radio wave channel.<p>

"District 13. Reporting in front of the main road of Area G. Vehicular movement has reached a stop here as well."

"District 1 . Reporting again from Kepler Avenue of Area A. The driver of the car is displaying some unusual behavior. His eyes haven't blinked for about 15 minutes."

* * *

><p>"That's odd." Atsuchi Tomoya wiped the sweat out of his forehead. "That book's nowhere to be found..."<p>

The two spent the entire 30 minutes looking for the book but without any results.

"I'm sorry for troubling you with this matter, young boy." The man spoke as he stood in front of Tomoya. His hands were up against his chin, thinking of what to do next.

They were now back at their starting point which was the middle of the west wing of the 2nd floor.

Again, Tomoya inspected the part of the bookshelf where the book was supposed to be. He read through the titles that were printed on every book's spine, hoping that the book they were looking for was misplaced in that bookshelf and that he had just overlooked simply overlooked it.

"Academy City sure is a curious place." The man sighed. "Relying on technology to make your lives comfortable and leaving outsiders in the dust."

"Is this your first time in Academy City, mister?" Tomoya said.

"Yes. The acquaintance I spoke of told me that I would only find that book here in Academy City so I had no choice but do as he says. And the worst part was that he asked me for a troublesome favor in exchange for the information. I normally don't concern myself with this city. I much prefer studying in my homeland in Europe."

"Europe? Are you rich?!" Tomoya stopped what he was doing and turned around.

"Not as you imagine, boy. I am rich in books but not wealth. How about you? How does a student fair in this city full of academic institutions? Ahh... But I guess kids your age are more concerned with teir love life."

"It might be hard to believe but this Tomoya-san is a total ladies man. Hahaha... Just kidding..." Tomoya said with a tinge of sadness before changing the topic. "Well, I was a Child Error since I was a kid so student life here in Academy City is pretty natural to me."

"A Child Error?"

"It's the same as being an orphan." The boy shrugged.

The man was slightly surprised by the fact that Tomoya had no trouble revealing such a personal detail about his life to a total stranger.

"Do you often trust people like this?" The man spoke.

"Is that wrong?"

"Boy, the world of adults is full treachery... You'll be smart if you become cautious of anyone who approaches you... Including me."

"I see... Alright I'll keep that in mind." Tomoya replied monotonously. In his heart, he couldn't accept such a cruel idea. He wouldn't be able to accept the man's advice because it contradicted his own nature to help anyone who was in need.

Silence returned to the library until Tomoya decided to investigate again.

The boy slid his fingers down on a certain book's spine. "Maybe that book has been hidden thanks to this library's system. I think people call it the Labyrinth of Words."

"You mean that book rotation system? Indeed. That awful technology was what I was referring to. I took special care not to remove any more books for fear of these shelves moving."

Tomoya stood there in silence. He took a peek at the scrap of paper again. It contained the book's call number and section number.

The shelf they stood in front of should contain the book's call number in its range and the small area they were in was the very same section that should hold the book regardless of the rotation.

The boy approached the spot that was supposed to hold the book entitled "Blessings of the Night Mother", the one they were searching for.

There was particular rule he had for these types of situations and it was: Never give up.

He calmly looked at that place and saw a different book with a slightly different call number from the Blessings of the Night Mother.

The difference was that there was an extra digit that came after the call number. It could have been a special addition to the library or an error in the labelling.

Or, it could have been a code of sorts was what the boy thought. It could be the mystery that he was looking for.

He took the peculiar book on impulse.

The instant he did so, a sound like a gigantic gear turning rang out from underneath the floor. Several other machine-like sounds followed and then a long gap that was 10 cm wide opened up on the ground at the base of the bookshelves.

The system known as the Labyrinth of Words activated.

Each shelf was moving either vertically or horizontally, exchanging positions with adjacent shelves. The far corners which couldn't move any further spun around until they were pointing towards a spot they could move in. Curiously enough, not a single book fell out of place.

The two stood dumbfounded as they watched the spectacle.

Tomoya, who was a frequent visitor, had watched the scene countless of times before but he hasn't gotten tired watching the spectacle.

A bookshelf headed their way from their right side but the two easily dodged it by taking a step back.

After a few minutes, the mechanism stopped and all the shelves stood motionless.

The bookshelves were attached directly to the mechanism to prevent them from falling off during the whole process.

A bookshelf stopped right in front of them in the same spot as its predecessor.

Tomoya instantly looked at the exact same spot where he took the earlier book and it seemed that there was another book with a similar call number and an extra digit. Only, that extra digit's number had gone down based from the previous one.

"I don't think I've seen this book before during my search, have you?" The man analyzed the book's cover. "Can you please repeat that action you did just now?"

"E-eh?! Well alright then I guess there's no turning back now." Tomoya was startled by the man's sudden demand but he still did what he was told.

The book was removed from the shelf and the Labyrinth of Words began again.

Both of them were surprised. Tomoya especially, since he knew for a fact that the system only activated once a shelf reaches a certain "popularity" level. This shelf that triggered the system most likely hasn't been touched for several days but it was still able to activate the Labyrinth of Words without the special condition.

The layout of the entire section changed again.

The two dodged any bookshelf that came their way.

Once the process was over, another bookshelf stopped right in front of them and Tomoya looked at the same spot as before.

The previous books he had took out was now in the man's hands.

Tomoya repeated the process again and each time, the call number went down until an odd phenomenon occurred.

The same spot where a book should have appeared was completely empty.

"W-wait... so someone has borrowed it already?" Tomoya frantically examined the spot.

"That's impossible! I'm completely certain that it is still here."

The mystery grew deeper for the two.

Tomoya couldn't help but doubt the man's words. "Are you absolutely certain? Maybe we should check up on the machine again?"

"No!" The man's calm expression has completely disappeared. "There is no need to."

The boy grew nervous.

That book the man was looking for must have been extremely precious for him to become desperate. His face now showed great anxiety.

Tomoya couldn't think up of any other possibility other than that someone has already borrowed the book.

_If I trust what the man here is saying, then that could only mean that the Blessings of the Night Mother is still hidden here somewhere._

Then, he got an idea.

He had almost forgotten that trivial fact, his own special ability.

Without further delay, he used his Clairvoyance to scan through the bookshelf. His eyes had a small glint to them.

He moved from the leftmost side of the shelf and then moved his gaze up and then.

The man watched the boy do his work, clueless of what he was doing.

Then, Tomoya stopped right in the middle where the Blessings of the Night Mother should have been and saw a peculiar square symbol. "What's this?" The boy stretched out his hand towards the symbol on the back of the shelf.

The symbol might have been concealed or engraved within the wood. Tomoya did not know which for his Clairvoyance was unable to accurately distinguish distance to some degree.

Just as his fingers tapped on the wood, four small concentric circles of light appeared inside the square.

"W-what's happening?!" He blinked his eyes twice in disbelief. "Is this some sort of esper power?"

The mysterious phenomenon made its mark in his memories.

After a second, the light died down and a hand tapped him on the shoulder.

"I do not need your efforts anymore, young boy, for I have found the book." The man spoke as he carried with him a medium sized grey box. "It seems it really was misplaced here after all."

Tomoya looked towards the man and the box. His expression was still in a daze. "I-I see... I'm glad you have found it."

The box was extremely odd. It reeked of a certain malice.

The man spoke of a book however what he carried was totally different. There was no hint of writings on any of its sides, just fine lines of black and dark purple. One could barely believe that that object actually belonged to a library.

However, Tomoya had forced himself to believe in the man's words. He could not comprehend the unknown so he forcibly accepted a truth that was given to him. If not, then he felt that something that he shouldn't have come into contact with will invade his own perception of reality. That feeling may have come from that awkward phenomena earlier or the unsightly box.

His heartbeat became erratic. Cold sweat ran down his spine.

One of his personal rules came into mind: Control your curiosity. It went center stage in his consciousness.

He followed it.

He wanted to follow it but the resistance in his mind gave way.

Clairvoyance was an ability that could cross physical boundaries. It tries to satisfy its owners curiosity as much as it can.

This was a particular situation where that desire will surge out.

He finally made up his mind.

Only a little bit, just a little bit he thought.

He moved his gaze towards the box and activated his esper ability.

What came next was a total blur.

Tomoya felt a sense of vertigo and a slight pain in his head. He looked around and saw himself lying down on the floor.

There was a contradiction in his sense of time.

He didn't know what caused it or why was he lying down but what caught his attention more was the absence of the man who found the mysterious book.

"Ughh..." Tomoya rubbed his head to quell the pain. "Seriously, what was that?" He groaned again. "Did I trigger an esper's mental trap ability? Come to think of it, I forgot to ask his name."

* * *

><p>A number of reports were sent in Anti-Skill's radio wave channel.<p>

"District 13. Reporting from Area G. A man seems to be undergoing trauma here after getting hit by a motorcycle. We suspect that he is under some sort of psychic suggestion."

"District 1. Reporting from of Area B. I found multiple people suffering from the same psychological conditions that were discovered in Area A. I'm securing them right now."

* * *

><p>"So only the second part of the grimoire is all that's left?" A bubbly female voice spoke.<p>

"Exactly. That Aleister made such a troublesome puzzle." A pale middle-aged man with shoulder-length silver hair spoke towards a goatskin parchment in his hands. His words were directed towards the female voice which also came from the parchment. "The first part of the grimoire was reconfigured and divided into several books. I could not understand why they were placed on the same three dimensional space apart from the special conditions set for the magic circle that served as the trigger for the restoration code, and the fact that he is looking down on our beloved mother's gift. He did not supply more difficult traps aside from the technological ones such as the Labyrinth of Words."

"If that man who calls himself a Kihara did not give us clearance to Academy City and the exact three dimensional space which he converted into the library's identifier number, we wouldn't have come this far. Right, Thanatos?" The female voice spoke with a sweet tone.

"How do you plan on fulfilling his request?" The man walked down a certain pathway. He was alone in the area.

"Well, I'm not too sure." The voice giggled before continuing. "I guess a minor spiritual item will suffice. After all, he didn't specify his conditions well enough. Only, 'make the target come into contact with your variables.'"

"That's fine with me." The man named Thanatos took a good look at the box in his other hand. "I do not trust Academy City scientists anyway. War is a better place with only soldiers on the playing field."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

**So it's been a while since I did an A/N after a chapter(it's at the top now most of the time) but I guess it's better late than never.**

**I apologize if I did this rather late and a lot of you will miss this updated A/N. It's just that I was so excited to publish this chapter since I haven't done anything in a while so I skipped on the A/N. And the ending of the chapter was kinda rushed like most of my chapters(I'm always so excited to publish stuff so I need to fix that).**

**Anyway, this piece is my first official fanfiction(I did a Pokemon one in the past when I was a kid but I never published it). And I'm definitely gonna give this my all, just to put it out there. I already have dozens of arcs stockpiled in my brain so I don't think I'll ever get a writer's block(nope I didn't get one before I published this chapter. I just had a hard time constructing the scenario).**

**Pairings?**

**I'm a Kamikoto fan I guess. I'm trying to make ShiraixMusujime happen. And I like AccelxWorst(I might write a oneshot with them and all the clones plus Mikoto in the future) as well but I'm always open to suggestions.**

**Akito hasn't won a fight even once. Why is he so weak?**

**He's not weak! He's just improving that's all. Mark my words, the time will come.**

**So about this chapter...**

**Yep, it's Magic time. That's all there is hahaha...**

**EOF**


	13. Sleep

**Greetings and salutations!**

**Well, I did some minor revamping on Chapters 1 and 2, though I'll probably do some more fixing later on.**

**The AN for last chapter has been done, though it's just me blabbering.**

**Criticisms and feedback are always welcome!**

**Enjoy your reading!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 13 –\0xSleep_<strong>

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><p>October 12.<p>

It was currently afternoon in Academy City.

A group of high school girls were surrounding a boy at the playground portion of the Children's Park in District 7.

"Wow! You're so amazing!" A girl wearing a sailor uniform from a certain high school clapped her hands vigorously. "I think Academy City should label you as the next Level 5. I mean you're so good with your powers!" She stood facing a boy who was using his esper abilities.

"Hehehe this is nothing! Watch me raise the speed of my wind even further." The high school boy spoke as he stood near a tall tree. His hand pointed upwards as he manipulated wind into a tornado using his ability classified as Aero Hand. Dozens of leaves from the ground were blown upwards by the mass of wind.

"Kyaaa~! You're so cool Ryouji-kun!" Another girl with the same high school uniform spoke as she watched the boy.

"Are you kittens amazed by my pow-"

"Waahh~! Shishou, higher! HIGHER!"

A loud and cheerful voice interrupted the boy's speech.

Annoyed, he boy faltered a bit causing tornado to slow down.

"I'm trying! You know, you're acting too much like a kid to be impressed by a swing!"

Another loud voice followed. Soon, the boy with the wind manipulation ability abruptly lost control of his ability. All the leaves fell down on top of him embarrassingly.

The girls from the clique let out a disappointed "Awww~"

The loud voices belonged to a blonde haired boy wearing a white hoodie with a cross mark design named Takayama Akito, and an android in the form of a teenage girl wearing a light blue hoodie named Athena. They were a few distances away from the boy named Ryouji and his clique.

After the commotion with the Anti-Skill and Judgment had settled, both of them decided to stay for awhile. Or more specifically, Athena forced the young blonde haired boy to play with her around the park.

Akito was currently pushing Athena on the swing at the android girl's request. He was having a difficult time because the girl was a lot heavier than he had expected. But he stopped himself from saying so because even though he knew he was dense, he was aware that a girl's weight was taboo.

"Higher! Higher!" Athena gleefully shouted as she rode the swing. Her smiling face was bound to refresh any young boy's heart upon seeing it.

"I'm trying!" The young boy panted as he tirelessly poured all his efforts to push her on the swing. His arm muscles were getting stretched to their limit as his breathing became .

Several footsteps suddenly approached them from their front.

"Hey! You two over there!" The boy named Ryouji pointed at the two who were playing on the swing. A disgruntled expression appeared on his face. "You're such a bother! Aren't you ashamed of yourselves for interrupting me?! Haven't you heard of the name The Great Ryouji of Nanue High School?!"

The clique followed the boy named Ryouji and gave small shouts saying: "Yeah! You tell him, Ryouji-kun!"

The two stopped their playing and stared at each other for a moment.

"Shishou, I didn't know seaweed could grow on a man's head." The girl tilted her head slightly.

"It's seaweed?! I thought it was some kind of blue colored mold?!" The young boy said.

A cross-shaped vein appeared on the boy named Ryouji's forehead after hearing the insults on his precious hair.

"Y-you lowlifes! Don't you know I'm the strongest Level 4 in Academy City?!" The boy named Ryouji pointed his palm at Akito and Athena, and then at the same time, gusts of wind began to blow towards his palm from underneath their feet. The trees and bushes around the park rustled as the gusts of wind blew past them.

Athena's eyes grew serious. She stood up to face the wind esper but then a hand grabbed her arm to stop her.

"I'll handle this." Akito muttered.

"Shishou, you can't. You don't have any powers!" Athena pleaded. "You may have once fought the Meltdowner but that could hardly be called a victory!"

The young boy brushed her off and took a step forward.

Without warning the boy named Ryouji unleashed a tremendous gust of wind which circled around to form a large spiralling tornado. A large tornado blew away the leaves and stones in the area, and headed straight towards Akito and Athena.

Suddenly, an unknown figure got in front of the two and quickly clashed his right hand with the tornado.

An odd phenomenon occurred.

The tornado abruptly disappeared leaving no trace and the wind in the area subsided.

The boy named Ryouji was left speechless, not knowing what had just occurred. He was absolutely certain that he did not lose control of his powers this time.

"Are you two alright?" Kamijou Touma turned towards the boy and girl behind him. His black high school uniform fluttered a bit before the massive wind died down.

"Tch! I'll remember this!" Not wanting to get involved with the three anymore, the boy named Ryouji clicked his tongue and hurriedly turned around to leave.

The clique followed and began to bombard him with the following questions: "What happened, Ryouji-kun? Were you experiencing an off-day? Who was that spiky-haired boy? He was kinda cute~"

"Well, that was a lame parting shot." Akito spoke up suddenly. "Kamijou, what happened just now? Weren't you the one that caused all that?"

Athena looked at the spiky haired boy slightly confused.

Kamijou grew pale after being questioned so abruptly. He made a sheepish smile as he tried to hide this fact. "W-well uh... What could you ever mean, I wonder?"

"You can't fool me, Kamijou. It was obvious that it was your doing." The young boy shrugged. "Besides, what's there to hide? It's not like having a supernatural ability was particularly special here."

"I don't really like talking about this. But since it's just two..." Kamijou scratched his head. "... My right hand has the power to negate any ability. It's called Imagine Breaker."

"That is rather odd for an esper ability." Athena said.

"I don't think it's related to being an esper." Kamijou replied. "To be honest, I don't really understand it myself….."

Akito glanced at the right hand as he tried to recall the book he read from Nunotaba Shinobu's collection. It was the book written by Tsukuyomi Komoe and was a detailed compilation regarding theories about Level 0's.

_A power other than an esper's? Could this be one of those unknown variables that exists in this world?_

He closely examined the other boy's right hand for a while. A sense of curiosity overwhelmed him suddenly, just like how one finds an existence of pure mystery first hand. In the past, he researched about many different kinds of esper abilities to raise his own; however, this time around he had a completely different reason for investigating. This was more of an impulse or a hobby. He had no reason other than to satisfy his own curiosity.

"Oww! W-what are you doing?!" Kamijou howled in pain.

"Oh sorry." Akito withdrew his hand that was poking Kamijou Touma's right hand. "Maybe your right hand is possessed by something." He shrugged. The existence known as Imagine Breaker still eluded him but he decided to have self-control and set aside his investigation for now.

"Ha ha ha... I sure hope not." The spiky haired boy smiled nervously as he grabbed his right hand.

"Well whatever it is, it sure is amazing." Akito said with one eye out. "Anyway, thanks, Kamijou."

"Us Level 0's should stick up for one another, right?" Kamijou Touma grinned.

_Us Level 0's should stick up for one another? I think I have heard that somewhere before, but I can't remember… _The blonde-haired boy tilted his head in trying to remember something.

"By the way Kamijou-san," Athena spoke up beside Akito. "Where are the crepes you went out to buy?"

The spiky haired boy looked at his left hand and then his right but the crepes he bought as a punishment for losing rock-paper-scissors was nowhere to be had. He remembered bringing them to the park before saving the two from the wind esper but they disappeared from his mind after that.

Then the three noticed a small mess on the ground to their left. Strawberry, chocolate and blueberry, the colors of these three flavors were mixed up together to form something out of this world.

"Fukou da..."

* * *

><p>"So let me get this straight... "A certain voice spoke with a cold tone through a handheld phone's speakers."You got into the monorail, had a heart-warming chat with your childhood friend, and unknowingly got out at the wrong station soon afterwards. Clueless of where to go, you wandered around the streets of District 15 until you finally found yourself lost and decided to call for help?"<p>

"Hahaha... Uhh well I wasn't completely clueless, Hisako-san, I was just uhh... taking the scenic route!" A certain pony-tailed girl nervously spoke through the red handheld phone. "Moreover, Takayama and I aren't childhood friends. We're just middle school friends!"

"I don't care what type of friends you are! You better get here quick because we have work piling up, you damn rookie!" The girl named Hisako of Judgment's 164th branch spoke harshly through the phone.

Tatemiya Haruka was standing in front of a large map of Academy City displayed on a large display panel. It was meant for people who are unfamiliar of the city and needed some directions. The girl who was part of Judgment's 164th branch was part of this group. The nearly hundreds of people that were passing through, curved their path unintentionally to avoid the her as they made their way to the shopping malls of District 15.

"Did something happen? I thought we were just gonna be on patrol today?" Haruka asked.

"There're some mysterious cases occurring in the other districts so we have been tasked with the dissemination and traffic control. Anyway, just get your butt here as soon as possible! And no more getting sidetracked!"

"Y-yes ma'am!" Tatemiya Haruka made a salute despite the fact that the person she was talking to was unable to see the gesture.

At the same time, two high school boys from across the street noticed her and began a heated debate.

"Hm? Hey get a load of that beauty~" Grinning, Aogami Pierce pointed his thumb towards a certain girl who was standing in front of a map of Academy City that was being shown through a screen. "She's looks just like one of those extremely rare heroines that appear last in dating sims. Normally I go for maids, lolitas, lolita robots, and childhood friends, but a natural girl will suffice as well."

"Isn't that the notorious Level 4 from that certain high school in District 7?!" Tsuchimikado Motoharu abruptly took a step back. He was wearing his usual Hawaiian shirt under his high school uniform.

"She's famous?" A glint appeared in the blue-haired boy's eyes. "Guess that makes things more interesting….." He slowly moved forwards.

"A-Are you stupid?! You're going to get yourself killed!" Tsuchimikado quickly grabbed his friend's shoulder to stop his possible destruction. "I heard countless rumors that her cute outer shell disappears and gets replaced with an unimaginable horror whenever she comes into contact with perverts like us! She's one level above our Fukiyose! She's our kryptonite!"

Aogami stopped his advance but not because he has withdrawn from his mission but because he had to speak up his resolve. He slowly turned to face his friend. "Sometimes a man's got to do what a man's got to do…."

After uttering those words, the boy formerly known as Aogami Pierce was met with a demise that was nearly worse than death. Having taken a direct blow to his body after his perverted pickup line that was directed towards the female Judgment member, his body was left in an unrecognizable state, hidden and forgotten amongst the crowd in District 15.

Tsuchimikado Motoharu let out a small sigh and slowly walked out of earshot from the busy street into a vacant outdoor cafe. He had originally planned to part ways with his classmate but the unexpected situation delayed him a bit. Nevertheless, he was alone now.

He had only grasped a small idea of what state Academy City was in by observing the unnatural flow of people and vehicles that blended in the background. By separating what was out of place from the ones that were natural, he was able verify the suspicion that he was having for a while now, the suspicion that there was something off and ominous occurring. His information network must have been slow on the uptake was what he surmised.

He took a quick glance on the information billboard that sat above the building across him. The digital billboard showed news of the traffic incidents that have happened in the last few hours. Having divulged the information, he clicked his tongue and proceeded to call somebody on his phone.

"Hello? Tsuchimikado?"

Looking at the traffic accumulating in the nearby street, Tsuchimikado spoke in a disturbed voice. "Kami-yan... This is bad…."

* * *

><p>It was a common sight in major cities throughout the world.<p>

Most cities were well-known because of it but not Academy City.

But even Academy City was susceptible to the nature of vehicles clumping up together.

Traffic lined up along the long winding road of District 7. Taxis and buses were currently inaccessible so Kamijou Touma had to run on foot.

He had gotten a call just after he had left the Children's Park which was around the middle of District 7.

"Magicians are currently attacking Academy City?!" He spoke through his phone as he jumped over a car that was stuck in traffic.

"Yeah." The voice coming from the phone coughed before struggling to continue. "So far, I've detected two ambiguous sources, the one you are heading to right now which is at the northern part of District 7, and the other one which I have told Stiyl to check out."

The voice belonged to Tsuchimikado Motoharu who was experiencing a state after an esper uses magic. His weak body was currently leaning against a wall in an alley. The ritual he had used to locate the sources had left him in his current state.

"I'll catch up after a while so just go on ahead." Tsuchimikado's raspy voice was evident as he spoke.

The conversation ended and Kamijou returned the phone to his pocket.

The nature of the magicians attacking the city was currently unknown.

As Kamijou ran throughout the streets, he heard the continuous horns coming from the cars and other vehicles that populated the road. The roads surrounded him in as he stood in the middle of a public square near the northern part of District 7. He briefly looked around.

The movement of people was also slowed down due to the traffic so a crowd eventually formed.

There were Judgment and Anti-Skill working together to regulate the traffic and flow of people that were trying to access public transport.

"How am I supposed to find this magician?" The spiky-haired boy panted in exhaustion. "I need more accurate directions than 'northern part of District 7'."

The afternoon sun had already reached its peak and was now beginning its descent.

The boy stood under the shade of a tree in the public square, trying to come up with a plan.

It was uncommon for a magician to sneak into Academy City, even more so if he was there to directly attack the city.

Kamijou Touma looked around the area.

The cluster of people and vehicles can be noticed instantly. However, there was something odd with this. The abnormal traffic and the mass number of people may have been the magician's doing but all it did was to slow down the general flow of Academy City's population. Truly, if a magician wanted to attack the city then he would have done something that would have more catastrophic effects, although, Kamijou was slightly grateful that no destruction has occurred yet. There were small accidents here and there but nothing to be considered as impactful.

What was the magician's intentions?

He had several experiences with magicians invading Academy City in the past. All of them had caused mass destruction to the city's landscape. Just thinking about those events made a chill run down his spine.

However, the current situation was somewhat different. It was lacking something; something which he could not point out.

Did the Roman Catholic Church send another agent?

Kamijou Touma tried to rack up his brain trying to figure out all these question.

The public square was filled with noise from various sources and among those sources were the sound of Anti-Skill sirens who were currently investigating an incident with a motorcycle that had gone out of control and hit a post near the other end of the public square.

Noticing this, Kamijou quickly moved towards the scene, making his way through the many crowds of people.

A large van meant for delivering the injured to the hospital occupied a certain space on the road that was being accompanied by three Anti-Skill members. The investigation seemed to have reached a conclusion and the victim of the accident was now laid out on a stretcher inside the van.

After watching that the three Anti-Skill members had moved towards the opposite direction to assist in the other Anti-Skill's in the area, Kamijou hurriedly entered the large van. The sight of a middle-aged woman with long brown quickly went into view. Her leather jacket and helmet lay on one corner of the van. The visor of the helmet was crushed from its impact with the pole.

The boy figured that the magician might have been behind the accident, influencing the woman through magic. When he removed the cloth over the eyes of the woman, his eyes was met with a cold, lifeless stare.

"W-What is this?!" Kamijou took a step back from the unconscious, or rather, unmoving body.

It was difficult to distinguish if the woman was awake or unconscious. Her eyes were empty as it watched the ceiling from the stretcher.

Kamijou lightly placed his right hand on the woman's forehead but nothing happened. "Ahh haha… I guess it isn't that simple." He smiled nervously. "A talisman or a marking maybe?"

Before he could search the body any further, the chattering of the Anti-Skill drew close so he had to retreat temporarily.

"Seriously, what's going on?" Kamijou gritted his teeth while he hid behind a bush that was near the van. He quickly picked up his phone after it had vibrated inside his pocket.

"Kami-yan, it seems the invaders are from the Magic Cabal that had been purged off during Emperor Constantine's reign of power. We currently have no records of them aside from the fact that they use magic that was extinguished from the world a long time ago." Tsuchimikado's voice resounded on the phone.

"Tsuchimikado, have you seen the state these people are in? Do you know how to remove the spell that is affecting these people?"

"Most likely, a medium is connected to their body. That medium must be using a power related to Hypnos, the personification of sleep. Have you tried groping around the body with your right hand?"

"Err… w-well…"

"Anyway, we've found the exact location which is…"

The spiky-haired boy wasted no time and followed the directions given to him. He noticed the people displaying the zombie-like behavior grew in number as he moved closer to his destination. They're lifeless eyes were noticeable while they walked slowly on the streets; however, they blended in the thick crowd quite easily.

A four-floored building complex came into view, and it was in the middle of the thick crowd of people that were unable to access public transport.

Kamijou Touma entered the roof of the building where he found a hunched back man with bolding hair.

The man took a step back in surprise. "K-kh… It's the Imagine Breaker!" He was about to reach for something in the pockets of his long black coat but a misplaced step sent him off balanced laughably.

Clenching his teeth, Kamijou took this opportunity and rushed towards the man. The distance between wasn't very far so he had no trouble reaching the magician. Once he got in front of the magician, he brought him up and clenched his right fist to deliver a powerful blow to the magician's face.

The man fell backwards a few distances away.

With that, the spell should have been broken. From Kamijou's experiences, knocking out the spellcaster would usually end the spell which the spellcaster has done. At least, that was what should have happened.

"I guess that should do it." Kamijou wiped the sweat off his forehead. _Was this too easy? There was hardly any resistance. Or rather, this magician hardly put up any fight… _The boy felt displeased of his victory but shook it off as he had other things to take care of. He proceeded to the door to the exit but then he heard several loud sounds from within the building. It was the thunderous sounds of footsteps from the zombie-like people, and it was nearing the rooftop.

A chill ran down the boy's spine.

There was a simple possibility that came into his mind as he headed towards this building just a few moments ago. This possibility could explain why there hasn't been any destruction or cataclysm done to Academy City. It was the possibility that the spell was intended for drawing his attention to this certain location and to trap him. It was the possibility that he had regrettably overlooked.

He looked towards the unconscious man and saw a malicious grin that indicated his victory.

Without knowing it, he played into the trap that was laid out for him by the mysterious Magic Cabal.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**Yes, I enjoyed writing Kamijou Touma as the central figure of this chapter. I might make him more active in the next chapters, as long as it's convenient for me though.**

**No, the one he defeated wasn't the same magician as last chapter, though its rather obvious.**

**Writing a magician's ability is actually more difficult than an espers as its rules are more difficult to manifest.**

**Welp, look forward to next chapter! Happy Holidays!**

**EOF**


	14. Revolution

**So here's the update. It's fairly long so you might as well grab some snacks or go to the bathroom.**

**Anyway, I don't want to keep you waiting so go ahead and please read.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 14 - \0xRevolution<strong>

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><p>Somewhere in District 7, a certain boy stood in front of a store's display window where a large TV was broadcasting various traffic anomalies that have been occurring in the last few hours. His hair was dyed blonde and he was younger than most freshmen students.<p>

"Major roads are currently jammed around and within District 7 huh… It's like there's a wall around the district. I guess I don't have any choice but to walk." He rubbed his messy hair in a tiny bit of frustration before letting out a sigh. "Man, all I've been doing these couple of days are walking and running."

The boy began his long walk towards his dorm where he will wait for a certain android girl, the appointed cook for today's dinner, and the groceries which she will eventually turn into horrifying dishes, ones that could even make a hardened survival expert cry.

The girl has been attempting to make each and every one of her dishes extremely healthy, and each time, they always end up with a taste that was extremely difficult to describe. The reason was that she wanted to give the boy the best possible nourishment one could make using ordinary ingredients only.

Smiling bravely, he moved onwards like a soldier about to sacrifice himself for a noble cause. A single tear came out of the edge of his eye as he accepted his fate.

As he passed by an open cafe, those words came into his mind, yet again.

_Us Level 0's should stick up for one another right?_

That thought has been on his mind ever since he left the park.

_Now that I think about it, it's that guy who said that to me before, and with a smug face in fact. It's definitely that guy._

As if being triggered by those infamous word, he recalled a certain incident almost immediately. It was an old incident that has been buried deep under the months that have passed, and has yet to be resolved even now.

The memories of those days began to enter his mind. He knew what those memories held but he tried to push it back into his brain's repository, at the deepest part if possible. He stopped his mind from digging deeper into the unwanted past just as the cold and nostalgic air of the back alleys he used to call his playground had reached his skin. It was a numbing feeling. Some times with bruises, sometimes with sneering, the juvenile activities of the Level 0's was the centerpiece of this memory.

Resolving it was pointless for him, nothing would change if he did. Nothing would change the fact that he was the one that caused the suffering of several espers out of hate. He inflicted pain on arrogant espers just to make them realize acting so high and mighty because of their Level won't get them anywhere. He wasn't alone in this though, there were others like him as well, other Level 0's who despised espers.

For now, he averted his eyes from the truth, fully aware how cowardly it was just so he could taste these peaceful days, no longer doing unlawful activities in the shadows while hiding from Anti-Skill's watchful eyes and hiding his past from his friends.

"Is there something troubling you, boy~?"

A bubbly voice suddenly called out to him as if it had read the conflict in his mind.

Curious, Akito stopped in his tracks and turned towards the source of that voice.

"Why not get your fortune told?" Smiling cheerfully, a slender foreign woman in her early 20's announced while sitting on a circular bench surrounding a tree.

Her bobbed, blonde hair was partially covered by a blue bandana. At the left side of the bandana, a single golden floral ornament was pinned. This odd accessory sorely did not match with her formal black suit. Her long, dark slacks gave her the impression of a working woman.

The bench she sat on made a full circle around a tree which stood at its center.

"Fortune telling in Academy City, the city of science? That's a bizarre combination." The boy approached the woman as he spoke. "Are you a wandering fortune teller or something?"

"What's it to you, pretty boy?" The woman responded. "What's your name?" Her friendly smile remained constant.

"Takayama Akito."

"Pfft! That's such a boring name! You're like an average salaryman!" The woman tried to hold back her laughter.

"That's kind of insulting you know. In fact, apologize to every salaryman out there!"

"Now now… No need to get riled up. I am Nemesis and I will be your fortune teller for today!" The woman gave a seductive wink.

Not knowing how to react, Akito only gave an annoyed scowl. He didn't like being teased.

"Well, why don't you take a sit so we can chat?" Nemesis gestured towards the space to her right.

The boy reluctantly did as he was told. He had nothing else to do for the rest of the afternoon and there was no reason to decline the foreigner was what he thought.

"I thought you were supposed to tell my fortune?" He sat an arm's distance away from the fortune teller.

"It makes my fortune telling more effective. Ah but this has anything to do with that Barnum Effect you Academy City people know so well about."

"Then why?"

"Aww~ you don't like talking with this beautiful onee-san? You're such a bad boy," Nemesis chuckled. "Talking to someone creates a certain bond, you know? By connecting with you, I am able to transfer your past, present and future into the cards."

Still skeptical, the boy could only sigh at the characteristic mysticism present in fortune tellers, including this one. "Alright, alright."

Akito was the kind of boy who did not like being forced into someone else's pace, especially if it was some strange salesman. But that did not mean he was not interested in stuff like fortune telling.

"Hehehe…. What should this onee-san ask you about~" The woman smiled devilishly. "Oh! A handsome boy like you surely has a girlfriend!"

"No, I don't have one." Akito in a deadpan way, waved his hand as he dismissed the woman's idea.

"Would you go out with me then?"

"H-hey stop fooling around, will you?!" The boy avoided the woman's eyes.

"Hahaha alright... Onee-san will postpone her advances for now." The woman let out a fake, disappointed sigh. "So you are a student of Academy City correct? Are you one of them espers that Academy City is so obsessed with?"

Before answering, the boy watched as the woman named Nemesis, gracefully shuffled her deck of cards. The cards themselves have stylish black designs on their backs.

"I am, but only a Level 0. They're the lowest level among the espers. They don't have any special abilities, well… most do but their powers are hardly noticeable and are on an extremely small scale."

"Why is that?"

"Huh?" Akito tilted his head slightly, not quite understanding the question.

Nemesis looked to the distance with her calm and apathetic face. She could see all the shops and open cafes which surrounded them.

The two were in a small square of District 7's commercial area. There was a fountain at the center of the square where people occasionally passed through to throw coins to make simple wishes. Around that fountain, there were similar trees being surrounded by a circular bench like the one they're sitting on.

Everyone in the area was all smiles. It made a good a picture.

"Why are you and other espers still at such a low level? Don't you think there's some unlawfulness within Academy City's system?"

"….Well, I'm not really sure. There are a lot of things which affects an espers growth such as-"

"I hate it…." Nemesis muttered with downcast eyes, her blonde hair trying desperately to hide her expression.

"What?"

"I hate Academy City… and this world we live in… They are all so unfair to the weak….."

"…"

For a moment, Akito felt like he was talking to himself.

'Hate' was a word the boy was well accustomed to. He had used it on this city, this city which only had an eye for research and was apathetic to a student's struggle in the Power Curriculum Program. He had used it on the students, who looked down on the powerless, non-ability users like him. He had used it on his classmates, who looked at him with cold stares. And finally, he had used it on himself, for not being able to climb the steep wall of the Power Curriculum Program, not able to attain the powers he longed for. Hate was an emotion that can be considered as his closest acquaintance.

Recently, he had promised a certain girl that he will never again direct his hatred at this city. However, there was still some bitterness in his heart from his past experiences that he could just not let go. Therefore, he couldn't find it in himself whether to agree or disagree with the woman's belief.

Takayama Akito was not able to make up his mind.

"My cabal has been facing extinction … We were always on the run from those stronger than us, Academy City and the rest of the world. Our numbers dwindled with the passage of time…"

"Is this 'cabal' supposed to be your group?" asked Akito.

Nemesis smiled weakly. "They're… more life a family to me. We've been trying to survive despite how small we are."

_Kind of like Level 0's. _Akito thought.

"Well, that's enough of that I suppose..." The woman returned her attention to her cards. "Shall we get started?"

The boy silently and slowly nodded, shaking off all the negativity from before.

"I will now begin reading your past, present and future through my Arcana."

The process was very simple. She placed her deck gently on the bench and began laying three cards faced down.

What Nemesis did was one of several ways of doing Tarot readings. Some professionals preferred different number of cards to be laid. Technically, three was the bare minimum and it was what the fortune teller named Nemesis was used to. Each card would bare a unique picture representing a certain event which she will interpret to him.

She flipped the first one over and revealed its contents, an old man holding a lantern. "This is the Hermit Arcana in reverse, and it represents your past. Simply put, you have spent too much time thinking in isolation, unable to fully grasp your inner self." She then flipped the next card which showed a man hanging on a noose. "The Arcana that represents your present is the Hanged Man in upright. It says that you are spending invaluable time in your decisions correctly. And finally," the next card which the woman showed had an ominous feeling which made the boy shrink back a bit. "Your future holds the Arcana of Death in upright. It is not death where you cease to live. It means the end of a certain part of your life and a chance to begin anew."

A giant picture of a skull encompassed the entire card.

Akito furrowed his brows as he looked at all the cards laid out on the bench. Everything the woman said sounded gibberish to him. In the first place, he didn't even believe in fate or luck.

"Hahaha! It's okay if you don't understand any of it. Oh and you don't have to pay me or anything, this is just something I wanted to do. In fact, I have something to give you for your time." Nemesis smiled before gathering all the cards into the deck. She then shuffled the deck and took the top card.

"The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate…." Eyes closed, Nemesis whispered to the card, her voice sounding like a cross between a chant and a poem. "Entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope."

The boy only stared at the woman with curiosity.

"Yes, the Arcana is the means by which all is revealed… Ones journey always begins with innocence, inexperience and freedom. It is unclear what the future will hold for this journey, but the possibilities will rain down infinitely…"

"What are you doing?"

"Just a ceremony for the effects to take place…" Nemesis handed the card to the young boy. "This is you yourself. The Arcana that which symbolizes you."

The card showed a picture of a man holding a stick with a sack tied to it. He had clothes like a medieval jester. It had a label of 'Fool' on the bottom of the picture along with the number zero.

"Uhhh… thanks I guess…" Akito took the card in hand and put it in pocket. He didn't understand why but he felt that the card kind of suits him. Though, the label kind of ticked him off a bit.

The woman smiled. "You know, magic began when a certain person got envious of a natural esper that had been created by chance."

"Magic? What are you talking about now?"

Nemesis brushed him off and continued. "That person got envious. He wanted to be special himself. And so, he devised a way to become special too. You are envious of those espers that are above your level right?"

"….. Yeah, I am..." The boy felt his heart wince. "I don't like being left out as an insignificant existence in this city".

No matter how many times he has been told Levels do not matter, he still felt deep in his heart that it did. For him, it meant that a person special, that he can do things other people can't.

"I see, just as you don't have talent with being an esper, I too don't have much talent with my field. It seems we share similar fates..."

"I don't believe in fate, but I guess what you said is true. I won't deny it, I am envious..."

"Tell you what. We both have been striving to grasp the talent that we lack so I'll teach you something. It may not be effective enough since you're an esper already but still, it will change your world."

"Before that, about your hate-"

Before Akito could continue, a sudden explosion rang out.

It came unexpectedly. Several balls of fire hit the ground around them.

"Is a Pyrokinesist going rampant in public?!" The boy stood up and immediately went on guard. He pulled out his two phones from his white hoodie's pockets and quickly tapped a command on the screen that will call for any security or cleaning robots in the area to come to his aide.

Strangely enough, the people around the vicinity suddenly disappeared. Not a single person was around except for Takayama Akito and Nemesis.

The cause for this was a simple spell that was very common to all magicians.

"A People-Clearing Field has been put up." Nemesis stood alongside the young boy. "You may have not been affected because you were so close to me but you have no choice now."

"A what-field?!"

The woman let out an exasperated sigh. "It's Magic! Geez… People from the Science Side are so ignorant."

"What are you saying?! This is obviously some sort of mass mind-controlling ability, like that Number Five Mental Out's power!" The boy gritted his teeth. "Tsk… So we are up against a Level 5 and a Pyrokinesist…"

Nemesis brought her Tarot deck above the boy's head and smacked it down. "Just listen to this onee-san, pretty boy!"

The boy's expectations had been crushed when the culprit behind the attack showed himself in front of the two.

A tall man with red hair appeared with a disgruntled expression and with a cigarette on his mouth. He wore a black priest's robe and a barcode tattoo under his right eye.

He was a magician known as Stiyl Magnus.

"So this is where you were. You even took an innocent bystander as your hostage," he muttered scornfully.

The two directed their attention at the red-headed magician.

"Listen, pretty boy, what we will be fighting is completely different from those esper abilities you know so much about." Nemesis whispered to the boy beside him.

"Then, what are we fighting?" Akito whispered back.

"Magic."

After Nemesis uttered that word, Stiyl Magnus began chanting a certain spell as countless Rune cards scattered around the area from his hand.

What came next will shook Akito's being to its very core.

"Rise Innocentius!" The magician shouted across the battlefield.

A giant monster made completely out of fire emerged from out of nowhere in front of them.

"W-what is this?!" The young boy grew wide-eyed in shock.

"It's not all that amazing." Despite the fearsome monster appearing, the woman only let out a sigh of exasperation. "We aren't even after Index Librorum Prohibitorum so I wonder why the Anglican Church is so mad about us entering Academy City."

"H-hey! How do we fight this monster?!" Akito said. "I don't think there will be any robots appearing to help any time soon. "

"With this." Nemesis pulled out a Tarot card in front of the young boy.

The picture on the card showed a big lion's head. It was the Arcana known as Strength.

She uttered a few words before slapped it onto the boy's right shoulder and said, "Now you're good to go, my knight in shining armor. With this, your physical strength will greatly increase and you will be invulnerable to pain, as long as you have indomitable will of course. I don't think your blood vessels will burst since I'm the one casting the spell but oh well."

"Dammit… Arghh! Whatever!" Having enough of all the confusing explanations, Takayama Akito charged straight ahead, feeling a rush of power.

The young boy and the giant Innocentius clashed their fists together.

The boy's fist did not feel pain nor did it get scorched by the flames of the giant.

Fiery sparks scattered from the point of impact.

An explosive noise rang out and the two were sent backwards.

"T-This is amazing. It's like I have an esper power of my own." Akito looked at his unscathed body. "If I were to point out an equivalent, it would be strength enhancement through Telekinesis by hardening your body, or that Offense Armor ability. So this is magic…"

The Strength Arcana's power formed a barrier around the boy to give him strength equal to his mental fortitude.

The Level 0 could not understand the actual principles behind the mysterious power but the earlier fight told him that magic was definitely something to acknowledge.

_This is definitely different from psychic power. I wonder how the laws behind this works..._

The giant Innocentius was thrice the boy's height and was still intact.

It let out a viscous roar before charging straight towards the boy.

Akito gritted his teeth as he used the power of the Strength Arcana and lifted a big portion of pavement from the ground before tossed it over to the giant.

Innocentius was pushed back slightly before it melted the pavement with its hands.

"Just keep your indomitable will, Takayama, or else the spell will disappear!" Nemesis shouted from the distance.

Suddenly, several bursts of flame shot forward towards them.

"It won't be that easy." Stiyl let out a thin smile. "So it seems you will take their side huh. And here I thought you were just a regular bystander."

Nemesis evaded to the right without much effort.

Takayama Akito tried to evade as well but Tarot card that was placed on his shoulder got caught up in the attack.

"H-Hey can you use that spell on me again?!" The boy turned his head back towards his magician partner.

"I could… but circumstances tell me we have to part ways here."

"Huh?"

Nemesis pulled out a long, curved dagger from underneath her black suit. It was a common weapon in medieval times and was easy to conceal.

It was a weapon known as Mage Killer, a spiritual item that robs an area's flow of power such as mana. By pressing its blade unto a magician's skin, it can cut the flow of that magician's mana as well as disrupting his inner lifeforce that was being processed into mana.

"It can't be… ?!" The one who instantly noticed the weapon was Stiyl. "Are you planning to cause chaos?!"

A rip-like smile formed on Nemesis' face. She stabbed the dagger on the ground, cutting its flow of power.

The invisible power that was flowing in that area of the ground were like thin threads which corresponded with leylines. The space where the dagger made contact had been connected with the flowing power along with the People-Clearing Field, like a spider web. Thus, cutting a portion of it will create a distortion.

That served as a trigger.

In that instant, the People-Clearing Field has been disrupted.

The small public square of District 7's commercial area gradually returned to normal.

People rushed back into the area and found a giant flaming monster causing destruction.

A sudden uproar occurred as the ordinary civilians went into panic.

Seizing this opportunity, Nemesis returned the dagger into her suit and began her escape from the battlefield. She turned around and quickly headed towards the gap between the buildings.

"H-Hey, wait!" The boy cried out.

Stiyl wasted no time and summoned a giant fireball which he hurled towards the woman.

As if anticipating the attack, Nemesis rotated her body like a dancer and pulled out a certain card which she waved against the fireball. As it made contact, the fireball instantly got absorbed into the card.

The woman had now blended herself with the panicking people.

Stiyl Magnus, whose only objective was to capture the woman, could not point his attacks towards the innocent civilians.

"Tch… Well this is a mess." Stiyl clicked his tongue and looked on scornfully at the young boy. "Seems like your accomplice has abandoned you."

Akito froze in place, not knowing what to do. He was betrayed by someone who he thought was an ally.

"But no matter, I'll squeeze any information I can get out of you." The tall magician snapped his fingers and produced a ball of flame which he sent towards the Level 0.

The young boy snapped out of it and jumped towards the side to dodge.

_Shit! What do I do?! I can't turn my back on him or he'll just hit me instantly._

Akito looked around the area to see what he can use to get out of this situation but Stiyl didn't give him any room to think up of a plan.

The giant Innocentius charged towards the young boy.

The boy gritted his teeth and ran towards his left side.

Fire rained down on him while at the same time the Innocentius continued its assault.

Akito was barely able to dodge the attacks. His clothes grew tattered and his stamina was gradually declining. He was only an ordinary high school student so his battle capability was extremely low compared to the magician.

Innocentius swung its arm towards Akito but the boy got under it and rolled his body along the ground to the left.

Eventually, the young boy was cornered. He was surrounded by the giant and the magician in the corner of the commercial area.

Several screams could still be heard in the background.

But then,

"Hold it!"

A girl's voice resounded amongst the chaos.

The two turned towards the source of this voice.

"I'm with Judgment! Cease your hostility!"

"I-Idiot samurai girl!" Akito shouted in a half-mocking tone as he pressed his tired body on the wall of a shop.

"W-Who are you calling 'Idiot samurai girl'?!"

That voice came from a girl wearing a Judgment armband. Her hair was tied up in a high ponytail and she was wearing an outfit that would be more suited to summer.

She was Tatemiya Haruka, the strongest esper in her entire school and Takayama Akito's close friend.

"Tch… another interloper. " The tall magician said, annoyed. "I'll just take the boy then."

Stiyl sent a command for Innocentius to grab the boy.

The giant opened its wide hand and reached out to the one who was struggling to stand up. However, its hand was knocked away by a barrage of heat-emitting orbs similar to a miniature sun.

The girl produced two more balls of compressed heat radiation about three times the diameter of a baseball from her two hands and shot them both towards the giants head as she rushed towards her friend.

Innocentius however only budged slightly.

"Hey can't you control it or something?!" The Level 0 called out to his friend in front of him.

Haruka stared intensely at the giant. "I'm not sure… Some greater influence is manipulating it so I can't interfere. However, I may be able to divert the course of that man's fire attacks. I don't really like creating fire since it's so plain and boring, plus it's a lot more difficult to suppress." The Level 4 shrugged. "He must be a really good Pyrokinesist to create a monster from fire. Anyway, what have you gotten yourself into?!"

"I don't know! He was the one who attacked first!"

The girl heated up the gas that was present around her to create a half dozen miniature suns. She then threw the attack towards the giant.

They were hot balls of Plasma, one of the subsets of her skill as a Level 4 Pyrokinesist, similar to how an Electromaster can use Electromagnetism.

"Hmph! That won't work, esper…. ?!" Stiyl grinned but then it soon vanished after seeing the phenomenon that happened.

The orbs changed their course partway through, passing through the giant and heading straight towards the magician.

Smiling, Haruka spoke. "How's this then? There's a certain limit to how much distance I can control them but if it's just this then it's too easy!"

The attack hit straight on and Stiyl fell backwards.

The Innocentius then subsequently disappeared after its master had been defeated.

"Did you see that, Takayama? I have improved yet again!" The girl puffed her chest up in pride.

"Yeah, I guess you did." The Level 0 shrugged. "…. Although, didn't you just got lost and ended up here?"

Haruka avoided the boy's cold stare as a sweat drop ran a long her face. "T-That's not true! I just happen to pass by!"

The boy read her like an open book. He knew of her habit of getting lost ever since their years in middle school.

Suddenly, a chain of footsteps approached them from the distance.

"Takayama!"

The boy peered over his back and saw a familiar face.

* * *

><p>"…. So you're a magician as well, Tsuchimikado?" asked Takayama Akito.<p>

Tsuchimikado Motoharu grinned. "I would've preferred if you didn't know but it can't be helped I guess since the enemy has already leaked information about our world to you." He wore his usual green Hawaiian shirt under his high school uniform.

They were now in an alley, away from the crowded area of District 7.

Tatemiya Haruka who knew nothing about magic, was unable to understand the conversation. The only things she had understood was that her friend, Takayama Akito, helped a terrorist who had snuck into Academy, and the supposed Pyrokinesist who attacked them and Akito's friend were secret agents who have been dispatched to arrest the terrorist.

She leaned on the wall, still trying to grasp the situation. "Sorry about earlier. I didn't know you were a good guy." The girl spoke to the magician who was sitting on a cardboard box.

Stiyl only gave a silent nod before lighting his cigarette.

"Anyway, I made a mistake in letting Kami-yan go alone," said Tsuchimikado.

"Kamijou is involved in this as well?!"

"Yeah, he is currently being delayed due to another magician's trap. He contacted me earlier and said he was fine. It seems that he was able to find an escape route through jumping to another building."

"... I'm sorry I accidentally helped her. I didn't know." Akito spoke, looking down.

"It's fine. Thanks to you we now have an idea on their abilities…. They've already retrieved the second original grimoire hidden in Academy City." Tsuchimikado spoke with a serious tone as he leaned against the opposite wall of the alley.

"What are they going to do with these 'grimoires'?"

"I can't tell ya the specifics, Takayama. But, there will certainly be catastrophic consequences." Tsuchimikado replied. "They will escape Academy City for now to gather their strengths, and to devise a plan to destroy Academy City. All these things they're doing are just mock tests for their plans-"

"Tsuchimikado." The red-headed magician spoke.

The three others turned their attention towards Stiyl Magnus.

The magician stood up and approached the two. "Let's not waste our time or our target will escape. I don't have any idea what power the two original grimoire possesses, but I'm not just gonna sit here and let it fall into the wrong hands. You've already tracked them down right, Tsuchimikado?"

Tsuchimikado nodded and then faced the young blonde-haired boy. "Don't get involve, Takayama. This is dangerous business."

Takayama Akito understood what those words meant.

Espers were common in Academy City. Information about their abilities and principles were readily available in textbook so it was not hard to understand the foundations or laws their abilities were based on. However, to someone who was just a normal student in Academy City like Takayama Akito, magicians were a complete mystery.

"….."

Stiyl Magnus and Tsuchimikado rushed towards the final battle.

The girl watched the backs of the two as they left the alley.

The two stood in the alley in silence for a short while.

Haruka shifted her gaze towards the boy beside her. "What are you going to do, Takayama? From that look on your face, it seems you have unfinished business with that woman you spoke about."

"How about you? You don't have anything to do with this mess. But knowing you, you'll just jump right into the middle of it all." The boy gazed sharply at the sky which was now gradually becoming orange.

The girl made a wide grin. "That sounds about right. The fate of Academy City is at stake here after all! I can't just turn my back so irresponsibly."

"Fate huh… That's seems to be the norm nowadays." The boy stood up from his position.

He didn't feel scorn from being betrayed by Nemesis, but there was still something he felt like needed to do.

"Then let's go." He spoke and the two soon followed the trail of the two magicians.

* * *

><p>A lone man stood on a narrow field of grass, under the shadows of a large hangar about the size of a mall. To his right was a wide, open runway used by the several airports of Academy City's District 23.<p>

"You took too long." Eyes closed, Thanatos spoke in a cold tone.

Nemesis approached the man. "Sorry. The spell we casted using legends of Hypnos made it hard for me to switch Districts. It's a shame we were only able to halt Imagine Breaker. As expected of Necessarius, they have competent magicians. By the way... we're not gonna come back for him... are we?"

"Leave him. Getting the two original grimoires to the Sanctuary takes top priority…"

The woman adjusted her bandana to hide her melancholic expression from the man. "Alright…"

The Blessings of the Night Mother and Primordial Darkness were held tightly in the man's left arm. They were one of the thousands of grimoires in existence. The external appearance of the two objects was that of a cube.

The Primordial Darkness' appearance was similar to that of the other grimoire beside it. It was a cube covered by black and red clouds. The knowledge hidden inside the grimoires were said to be too toxic to be read so the cube-like exterior was only a container which prevents people from making contact with its pages.

"With these two grimoires we can finally hold the ceremony to summon our mother and father," said Thanatos.

Suddenly, two figures approached them from the runway. They were Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Stiyl Magnus. A calm smile was present on the former.

"You guys are pretty daring for such a small Magic Cabal," said Tsuchimikado with a carefree voice.

"We have our reasons." The man known as the leader of the Magic Cabal took a step forward. He took a military badge from his chest and began to chant a few words as he crushed it with his thumb and index finger.

Countless shadow-like figures began to errupt from the ground around Tsuchimikado and Stiyl. They were humanoid in shape but they did not have any features aside from their body made out of pure black.

"These Shadows are my men who had died during a skirmish in France during World War I," the man declared. "There is no greater representation of death than war. You two will die here and become part of my spell just like my honorable men."

"Heh... so the rumors are true. You are immortal," said Tsuchimikado, sneering. "You are one of the few immortals in our world. That's quite a feat for such a coward like you."

The man's eye twitched. A scornful look appeared on his face. "What do you mean?"

"You merely consume the souls of those who have fallen using a certain spell to prolong your life. As long as you are unable to cast the spell, you will die just like any old man who has reached his point."

"Then I will just take in more souls, yours." Thanatos snapped his fingers and then the army of Shadows moved forwards towards the Necessarius magicians.

Thus, the battle began.

Both sides only had one objective: Survive.

Tsuchimikado and Stiyl were drastically outnumbered however they did not waver.

"Stiyl, I'm sure you already know this but, I can only use one more spell due to using all those scouting spells." Tsuchimikado whispered to his partner before bringing up his handgun.

"We don't have much of a choice now do we?" Stiyl summoned a flaming sword from his hand and began swinging it around the shadow figures.

Tsuchimikado pointed his gun towards Thanatos while Stiyl watched his back but the Shadows made themselves into shields and blocked the bullet heading for their master.

The Shadows were not very strong and could disappear with a single attack, however, they were so many that it did not matter.

Stiyl slashed the Shadows down one by one but another Shadow quickly replaced the one he defeats each time.

The spectral beings, which almost numbered by a hundred, continued to close in.

And then suddenly,

"You guys need some help?"

From the distance, an army of drum-shaped security and cleaning robots heading in the direction of the battle. The ground rumbled as they did.

Sitting on top of four robots sticking close together in a grid-like fashion, Takayama Akito operated his phone to issue commands to the robots while Tatemiya Haruka created orange balls of hot plasma and firing it at the Shadows.

The young boy tapped a few buttons and then the robots changed their movements, heading straight towards the Shadows.

The robots collided with the Shadows one after another. Not having much strength, the Shadows resisted the charge of the drum-shaped robots, however, in a competition of strength, the Academy City-made robots were far superior. The Shadows eventually got knocked over before fading into nothingness.

The four robots carrying the two high schoolers approached Tsuchimikado and Stiyl, and dropped its two passengers before joining the fight.

"We'll be joining in so don't mind us." Haruka continued her attacks on the Shadows.

"Don't blame me if you get scorched." Stiyl replied.

The long battle ensued.

Tsuchimikado and Akito used their physical attacks while Stiyl and Haruka used fire to disperse the Shadows.

Their group destroyed each of the Shadows until not a single one remained. All that now remained was silence.

The robots ceased to function as well.

Tsuchimikado, Stiyl, Akito and Haruka now focused their attention on the man.

"I suppose you haven't noticed, or may have been too ignorant to notice." Thanatos broke the silence. "I have several more of those badges and medals, each one from a different battle. But, that will take too long to kill all of you, therefore, I will show a glimpse of The Blessings of the Night Mother."

After hearing those words, Tsuchimikado and Stiyl were overwhelmed by a sinking feeling while those who did not know anything about the grimoires, Akito and Haruka, were only confused.

The man slowly held out the grimoire with his right hand towards his enemies. In the spare time he had after acquiring the second grimoire, he had read a single page from the first one. Reading even a single page from a grimoire would usually leave one with a crippled mind and even lead one to his own death. However, to counter this effect, Thanatos used a bit of his lifespan as a scapegoat. Now the knowledge of a grimoire was within him. He avoided reading more of its contents for it will shave away every bit of his life. But still, he has acquired the forbidden knowledge inside the original grimoire. That was enough to inflict fear unto any ordinary magician.

The bright orange sky instantly turned to black and was enveloped with countless stars. The transition from sunset to night was too abnormal. They were all surrounded by a large dome that blocked the sky and replaced it with a night sky.

Tsuchimikado and Stiyl were overcome with uneasiness.

"Takayama, stay here. We'll handle this." Haruka spoke towards the young boy behind the group.

"Wait! I have a plan!" Akito desperately shouted.

"Listen to the girl." Stiyl pointed his flaming sword to the man holding the grimoire. "You can't do anything else here."

Their group was composed of a magician, a magician with an ability of an esper, a Level 4 esper and a Level 0 without any special powers. It was obvious which ones stood a bigger chance.

Everyone in the group knew this fact.

So, as Stiyl, Tsuchimikado and Haruka charged forward, the young boy who had no special powers, was left behind.

Akito felt the heavy feeling of being powerless.

His limbs felt like they were chained down to the ground.

An invisible force swept across the group as they approached a certain distance from Thanatos. It was a spell which became active since the moment the battlefield has been enveloped by the artificial night, a domain created using the grimoire's power. Any person with the intent harm the domain's master will instantly be knocked away by the spell.

The young boy watched in shock.

The force continued to repel his comrades' attacks, and at the same time, they were unable to defend form the unknown force.

The scene was too cruel.

His fists trembled as he watched his friends get beaten. They fell slowly one after another.

Now, only he stood there alone in that space surrounded by darkness.

"So what will you do?" Thanatos said with a cold and almost mocking tone. "You have been standing behind the lines for a while now so I was wondering what kind of powers you have. You seem like you are from Academy City so you must be an esper."

"You want to know what my power is?" The young boy said with downcast eyes. He clenched his fists tightly. "My power is..." He took a step forward despite the hopeless feeling he was experiencing. "MY POWER IS TO KICK YOUR ASS!"

In that instant, the young boy recklessly charged forward. He had no plan, tricks or strategies.

An amused smile ran across the magician's face.

Akito was instantly knocked backwards by the force surrounding the magician.

"I do not know if you are extremely courageous for joining a battle despite your lack of ability, or if you are just plain stupid," said the man, nearly laughing at the boy's actions.

"Stupid may not be too far off." Akito sat up from the ground of the runway, fist still trembling.

"No matter. I had my fun. It's about time I end- "

The man's voice was cut off before he could finish.

The young boy looked up and saw a long, curved blade erupting from the man's chest where his heart was supposed to be located.

He felt an urge to puke after seeing the gruesome scene. Blood started to flow out of the man's mouth. He may have pointed a gun at a certain Level 5, who pointed their beam at him, but he did not have any intention to kill his opponent so avoided the lethal parts as much as possible. This scene was the first time he saw death.

It was the spiritual item known as Mage Killer.

Mana was created by refining a magician's lifeforce, and it was the catalyst for creating spells. Since the lifeforce being used by Thanatos to maintain his immortality spell was absorbed from other people and circulated into his own body through the spell, by cutting its flow along with his heart, the spell was disrupted and the circulation of the lifeforce was cut.

The man soon collapsed on the grass, just a feet away from the runway. A figure of a woman replaced him.

"Now that that's out of the way, I can finally have this for myself," said Nemesis nonchalantly. She took the dagger's hilt and slowly pulled it away from the man's back. A card was stuck to the dagger's point. "Upon death their death, I can retrieve an Arcana from a person which symbolizes their essence. Of course, you might have already figured out that each card holds a distinct ability." She took the card with a symbol of the Death Arcana, similar to the one Akito saw before.

"Why?" The young boy stuttered. "Why did you kill him?!"

"I had to." The woman spoke with a tone of disinterest.

"Isn't he supposed to be part of your cabal?! Your family?!"

"My family has been long since dead. Academy City and this world killed them during their struggle to stabilize their firm laws of 'not interfering with each other'. This treaty between Science and Magic is just a sham." The woman's words trembled. "Behind the scenes, that Alesiter Crowley must be formulating a plan to wipe out the Magic Side while the rest of the Magic Cabals plan to eradicate Academy City. Us who are merely minor pieces in this game will eventually get caught up in the crossfire just like my family did. But I will definitely change that. I will change everything with these grimoires so join me, Takayama."

"What...?" Takayama said, not fully understanding the last sentence. "Why... should I join you?! And, why would you even want a Level 0's help?!"

"I can give you the power you wished for. You have already experienced it for yourself so I'm sure you are aware of the many possibilities. I can give all of that to you if you help me!"

Those words were like sweet honey to the young boy's ear. It was possible with magic, he thought. Just like before, he could gain the power to have unlimited strength, or maybe even more than that, maybe even surpassing the strongest esper in Academy City. With magic, he could finally attain his dream, he thought.

The woman slowly walked towards the young boy.

The unnatural night was now gone and the runway was filled with the lights from the dozens of posts at the edges of the runway. Above them was a twilight sky.

"Come on. Don't you long to be special?" The woman stretched her right hand towards the boy sitting on the ground. "Together we can change this world so that the weak can no longer be abused. We can revolutionize the Science and Magic Side."

After thinking things through, the Level 0 made up his mind. Everything was plain as day to him. There was no more need for him to hesitate.

"….. No thanks," muttered the blonde-haired boy. "I'll stand up on my own two feet."

In that instant, the woman's outstretched hand was covered by a cold, numbing feeling. From her fingertips to her palm, it was all gradually covered by white frost.

Nemesis' eyes grew wide in shock by the strange phenomenon. But it did not stop there.

Takayama Akito grabbed the woman's wrist and then, almost immediately, her entire right arm was steadily encased in ice.

The phenomenon continued its effects until it reach her shoulder.

That phenomenon was caused by the young boy.

He knew exactly what it was the moment it occurred.

That phenomenon that he has been searching for.

It was an esper's ability.

In response, the woman reflexively swung her arm around to shake off of the boy's hand before jumping backwards away from him. Her face was overwhelmed with confusion.

The boy stood up and said, "I may not be able to accept whether 'Levels don't matter' or 'This world is unfair' as true or not but, I'm damn well sure there's definitely something more important than any of those!"

Akito charged forward, producing a familiar weapon in his hand. It had a shape like a dagger and its body was partially transparent like a crystal. The blade refined its shape until it became an almost exact copy of the Mage Killer dagger being held in the woman's left hand.

The copy and the original daggers clashed, making a sharp sound like steel resound in the runway.

"Standing here, I realize you were just like me," said Akito as he swung his ice dagger that was being reinforced by Telekinesis. "Both of us have been too stupid to see what's really important. For me, it's to protect those people who have been looking after me despite me being too blind to notice."

"We... We could have revolutionized the world!" The woman said desperately as she parried with her own dagger. Her right arm still covered with ice. She would leave an opening to the boy if she used her Arcana now.

Each time their blades made contact, the original Mage Killer dagger's surface became afflicted with frost, making it dull and decreasing its effectiveness.

The magician had more experience with the weapon however her dominant hand had been frozen, leaving her at a disadvantage. She could hardly fend off against the boy's powerful swing.

Seeing an opening, Akito stabbed his dagger at the woman's side before grabbing both of her arms. His entire weight pushed both of them down to the ground. At the same time, a wave frost came out of the ice dagger, freezing the woman's skin and organs.

Soon, the ice headed towards her legs and neck. That, along with the ice coming from the boy's hands, covered the woman's body. The woman eventually lost her strength and the sensation in her body.

"You're... so unreasonable..." Feeling her loss, the woman let out a weak smile, her mind struggling to stay awake despite the extremely low temperature.

The boy stared emptily down at the woman and said, "Hey, what did that Fool Arcana mean? You infused it with magic didn't you?"

The woman laughed. "Oh, it's nothing... Don't worry... It just means... your journey has begun... "

After uttering those words, the woman lost consciousness with a smile before being fully turned into an ice statue.

Sadness grew across the young boy's face. He felt that he could have gotten along with Nemesis if they had met on different terms. But he had no other choice but to stop her. He didn't want to have his friends mixed up in this twisted conflict.

Afterwards, Akito stood up triumphantly, at least, that was what he had hoped but he couldn't. The moment he had activated his ability, a sharp pain ran across his head. He had been suppressing it throughout the fight but he had now reached his limit. A gush of blood threw up out of his mouth. His body convulsed as he tried to crawl away from the woman he had turned into ice. "I hope Kamijou comes here soon... so he can remove... all that ice away from you..." He coughed a few more before laying down. "I'll... just be leaving the clean up to him then." He closed his eyes as he lost consciousness.

* * *

><p><strong>END AN:<strong>

**I originally intended this to be a minor arc but I ended up causing mayhem to Academy City in the end so the build up may have become too excessive in the last chapter I guess. hahaha...**

**If you are familiar with Persona 3, you may have recognized Nemesis' chant. Most of the aspects in this chapter have been based on the Persona series.**

**I'm fully aware that Birdway knows Arcana Magic but I don't recall her ever using it so I just decided to adlib.**

**Who was that man that asked a favor from the Magic Cabal? Read the next chapter and you may find out!**

**So what exactly happened that caused that mysterious pain in Akito's body? He did not use magic if you're wondering. You will just have to read the next chapter to find out!**

**Reviews, criticisms and messages are always welcome so please do so.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**Next chapter is about a certain boy's beginnings in Academy City.**

**EOF**


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